Loading Sheetfed Press

A sheetfed press prints on individual sheets of paper. Stacks of sheets are placed in a loading area at the front end of the press and are fed into the press one sheet at a time. Bundles of paper are stored on pallets and delivered to the machine with some sort of mechanical device. Workers generally manually move material from supply pallets to the loading area of the press. Workers must use extended reaches and bending to access raw materials for loading machines such as cutters, folders, scoring machines and printing presses. In addition to extending the arms, the worker must often bend at the waist to access loading points.

Potential Hazards

• Extended reaches, especially with load in hand, increases the risk of shoulder and back overexertion.
  
• Bending at the waist, with or without a load in hand, especially with twisting greatly increases the risk of bending hazards.
  
• Considerable finger force must be exerted to lift and control loads being placed into machines. The hazard is greatly increased if the wrist is bent either side-to-side or up-and-down.