A “Toolbox” for Forensic Engineers

264 Forensic Materials Engineering: Case Studies
2. The time cycle setting controls should have been locked or otherwise
made tamper-proof so that adjustments could only be made by authorized
personnel.
8.3 Eye Injuries
A variety of accidents may occur during working processes. It is mandatory
that machines are provided with guarding that prevents flying splinters from
reaching the operator, although it is by no means unknown for those using
the machine to offer some reason (or excuse) as to why they were working
with the guard out of position at the time something went wrong that caused
a tool to shatter. For example, in one case a toolsetter was called to realign
tools in a power press when an allegedly uncovenanted stroke brought the
punch down while it was still misaligned with the die. Many personal accidents
result from pieces breaking off hardened corners of hand tools, pneumatic
chisels, etc. flying toward the user’s face or someone nearby, causing
a penetrating injury. Loss of an eye is particularly sad for a young person, as
there are cosmetic effects and an artificial eye can never respond like a real
one. It is therefore particularly important to discover where a particle came
from, what caused it to break away from its parent body and, particularly
for an insurance company and litigation purposes, who was at fault.
Contributory negligence is likely to reduce substantially any damages
awarded by a court, for example, a craftsmen who continued to use tools
that had gotten into an unsafe condition, like the mushroomed head of the
chisel shown in Figure 8.3, or skilled workers who take short cuts or cannot
Figure 8.3 Head of chisel. The triangular eye splinter has been replaced in the
mushroomed edge in the center field. A diagonal line left of center at about 80°
is one edge of the splinter; a diagonal line in the center at about 170° is another
edge, coming down to just right of center to meet at a sharp point.