Machinery safety in the printing industry

What you need to know

Most printing machinery accidents occur at presses while making ready, attending to web breaks/webbing-up, freeing blockages, machine setting, press cleaning, addition of substrates/inks and maintenance.

The most common injuries are lacerations, cuts and bruises, fractures/dislocation and crushing injuries to the fingers or hand. Fatal accidents have occurred on platens and other printing machines.

Common causes of printing machinery accidents result from:

Underlying causes of machinery accidents include:

What do I have to do?

Before you start using any printing machine you need to think about what risks may occur and how these can be prevented in accordance with the Provision and Use of Work Equipment Regulations 1998 (PUWER). You should therefore do the following:

Find out more

HSE guidance is also available specific to the following machinery used in printing; 

Updated: 2021-11-09