A HEALTH products manufacturer has been fined after a manager severed his finger because he did not know a ribbon blender was unguarded while it waited for a replacement valve. About a month before the accident at Bee Health's Bridlington factory early last year, the blender's regular operator had removed a valve, which formed an integral part of the guarding, for cleaning. When the operator had the valve off, he noticed the diaphragm inside it was badly damaged. Hetook the part to an engineer but there was no replacement, so one was ordered. The operator knew that with the valve removed, there was effectively no guard to prevent access to the machine's rotating blades.
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