It will be at least next year before the agency adopts a regulation, if it ever does. So far, its most definitive act has been to give SawStop an award for safety innovation. The agency has been wrestling with the issue, on and off, for 15 years. Indeed, another firm, Massachusetts-based Whirlwind Tool Co., says it has developed a “proximity detection” systems that will shut down a saw when a hand comes close to the blade.īut the industry may have little to fear from the commission. The industry is also trying to keep the Consumer Product Safety Commission from requiring injury reduction systems on all table saws-either SawStop or something similar. About 150 have been filed in recent years, focusing on the companies’ decision not to use available safety technology. In such cases, the owner usually has to replace the blade and an electronic cartridge.īut as court records and testimony have shown, the companies rejected the safety advance for another reason, too: They worried that if a way to prevent severe injuries got traction in the market, they would face liability for accidents with conventional saws.Įven so, they have had to defend lawsuits. They note that under some circumstances, SawStop can stop a blade without skin contact–such as when the blade touches conductive materials like metal or very wet wood. They say the market for popular, lightweight saws costing as little as $100 to $200 would be destroyed by the added expense of SawStop. They’ve argued that injury numbers have been inflated and that the government’s estimate of $2.36 billion in annual costs to society from table saw accidents-including medical bills, lost wages, pain and suffering-is exaggerated. Over the years, top saw makers and the Power Tool Institute, their trade group, have defended the design of their saws and the decision to snub SawStop. Tens of thousands of fingers have been sliced off since the system was invented, but the rest of the industry, which is self-regulating, has been allowed to go on as before. However, SawStop still makes the only saws with skin-sensing technology, and accounts for a tiny fraction of sales. “If your device prevents even one person from going through what I have gone through it is a world class accomplishment.” “I have not lived a single day without regretting that accident,” he wrote. “Bravo!” a man named Frank Oslick emailed SawStop, explaining that he had lost two fingers and part of his thumb in a table saw accident when he was 14. As he lunged to catch it, his right forearm got caught on the blade of his Ryobi table saw – and the machine quickly cut completely through one of his forearm bones and a nerve. Since the first went on sale in 2004, SawStop says it has recorded 2,000 “finger saves”-customer reports of accidents likely to have caused disfiguring injuries with conventional saws, but that resulted in minor cuts or a few stitches at most (SawStop acknowledges two reports of amputations).Īdam Thull was building a checkout counter for a local bookstore when he noticed a wood panel falling off the edge of his table. As the SawStop guys explained, they had been seeking licensing deals with the big power tool makers, but had found no takers.įaced with the prospect of never getting the invention to market, the little company, also known as SawStop, eventually started making its own saws. He took out his Visa card to order two of the saws, but was told none were available. Wheeler thought: If only this had come along sooner. ![]() ![]() Wheeler felt awful about the injuries, the loss of two good workers, the $95,000 in medical bills, the doubling of his workers compensation rates. Not long before, two of his employees had been maimed within a few weeks of each other. As the operator of a wood shop in Hot Springs, Ark., he was all too aware of the unforgiving nature of table saws. Gerald Wheeler had other numbers on his mind as he watched hot dog meet blade that day in August, 2002. ![]() workers and do-it-yourselfers suffer blade contact injuries, according to government estimates, including more than 33,000 injuries treated in emergency rooms and 4,000 amputations. Table saw accidents are painful, life-changing and expensive. But this saw was equipped with a safety device called SawStop that allowed the blade to distinguish between wood and flesh, and to stop fast enough to prevent serious harm. Sure enough, the blade came to a dead stop in about three one-thousandths of a second, leaving the dog with only a minor nick. The demonstration, at the International Woodworkers Fair in Atlanta, mimicked the way gruesome table saw injuries often occur. (Photo courtesy of FairWarning.)Īn Oscar Meyer wiener, serving as proxy for a finger, was pushed into the spinning blade of a table saw. Stephen Gass, president of SawStop, LLC, at company headquarters near Portland, Ore.
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