A man lost his finger in a rotating blade while cutting plastic for a window company, a court heard.
The worker at East Cheshire Glass Ltd in Macclesfield was positioning a piece of plastic under the blade while it was still running.
His hand came into contact with the blade and his index finger was severed to below the second knuckle on July 30 2010.
Appearing before Macclesfield magistrates, East Cheshire Glass admitted a breach of the Provision and Use of Work Equipment Regulations 1998 by failing to prevent access to dangerous parts of machinery.
It was fined £1,000 and ordered to pay £3,342.
The Health and Safety Executive told the court that, in order to keep production moving swiftly, the machine would not be switched off in between cuts.
This meant it was common for the unguarded saw blades to be raised and left running while pieces of plastic were placed underneath by hand.
The guard on the blade had also been adjusted to stop it hitting the pieces of plastic as the saw came down, but this meant several inches of the blade were exposed.
HSE Inspector Jane Carroll said: “If the guards on the blades were causing problems then East Cheshire Glass should have adapted them in a way that meant the blades were still fully protected when they were raised.
"The company’s priority should have been the safety of its employees but instead one of its workers suffered a permanent injury.”
