Stories
Slash Boxes
Comments

SoylentNews is people

posted by martyb on Saturday August 12 2017, @03:05AM   Printer-friendly
from the safety-is-no-accident dept.

In 2015, 4,700 people in the US lost a finger or other body part to table-saw incidents. Most of those injuries didn't have to happen, thanks to technology invented in 1999 by entrepreneur Stephen Gass. By giving his blade a slight electric charge, his saw is able to detect contact with a human hand and stop spinning in a few milliseconds. A widely circulated video[1] shows a test on a hot dog that leaves the wiener unscathed.

Now federal regulators are considering whether to make Gass' technology mandatory in the table-saw industry. The Consumer Product Safety Commission announced plans for a new rule in May, and the rules could take effect in the coming months.

But established makers of power tools vehemently object. They say the mandate could double the cost of entry-level table saws and destroy jobs in the power-tool industry. They also point out that Gass holds dozens of patents on the technology. If the CPSC makes the technology mandatory for table saws, that could give Gass a legal monopoly over the table-saw industry until at least 2021, when his oldest patents expire.

At the same time, table-saw related injuries cost society billions every year. The CPSC predicts switching to the safer saw design will save society $1,500 to $4,000 per saw sold by reducing medical bills and lost work.

"You commissioners have the power to take one of the most dangerous products ever available to consumers and make it vastly safer," Gass said at a CPSC public hearing on Wednesday.

Source: https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2017/08/patent-disputes-stand-in-the-way-of-radically-safer-table-saws/

[1] SawStop Hot dog Video - Saw blade retracts within 5 milliseconds of accidental contact - YouTube.


Original Submission

 
This discussion has been archived. No new comments can be posted.
Display Options Threshold/Breakthrough Mark All as Read Mark All as Unread
The Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not responsible for them in any way.
  • (Score: 5, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday August 12 2017, @04:36AM (2 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Saturday August 12 2017, @04:36AM (#552726)

    Bosch has a system that only wastes cartridges, not blades, as eveything moves down. And IIRC they got sued by Stephen Gass. Oh, mentioned in TFA. Yep, smells like monopoly by writing yourself the laws. Demo of Bosch REAXX https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bFiJD5w-cZU [youtube.com] Damn fast, don't blink. And don't try to cut sausages, useless.

    Starting Score:    0  points
    Moderation   +5  
       Informative=5, Total=5
    Extra 'Informative' Modifier   0  

    Total Score:   5  
  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday August 12 2017, @05:09AM

    by Anonymous Coward on Saturday August 12 2017, @05:09AM (#552741)
    Good thing it only waste cartridges since it triggers incorrectly in that video. At 1:52 the plastic cover has only just lifted and then it goes off.
  • (Score: 2) by captain normal on Saturday August 12 2017, @06:29AM

    by captain normal (2205) on Saturday August 12 2017, @06:29AM (#552772)

    Lesson: don't put your wiener in saw. And don't use the dumb guide like the one used in the demo with your thumb behind it.

    --
    When life isn't going right, go left.