Safety first … or not? The dangers of table saws
You’d think manufacturers of power tools would do everything imaginable to make their products as safe as possible, but is it possible the bottom line counts more? That seems to be the message in the outcome of a Boston trial that pitted Ryobi, maker of power saws and more, against a man whose hand was injured by a table saw. The man was awarded $1.5 million. On the heels of this lawsuit are another 60 some cases questioning the safety of the design of table saws.
The Journal of Trauma reported that between 1990 and 2007, emergency rooms in the United States treated more than 565,000 injuries caused by table saws. Many of these injuries affected the hand. Now, no doubt using power tools requires caution and care, but is there something manufacturers could have done to make table saws safer to begin with?
Oregon company SawStop believes so. SawStop makes a device specifically designed to prevent the saw of a table saw from slicing through a human body part. The patented device triggers a brake when the saw blade comes into contact with flesh. The device was created in 1999 and seemed a sure hit–the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission awarded the company a Chairman’s Commendation, and it won Popular Science magazine’s 100 Best New Innovations award. SawStop met with a number of power tool manufacturers, hoping to sell licenses to get their devices onto table saws, but interest dried. Ryobi had signed a contract with SawStop but then changed its mind in 2002.
Undaunted, SawStop chose to manufacturer its own line of table saws. It currently offers three models, ranging in price from $1,600 to $5,000. The saws cost quite a bit more than other brands of table saws, but can you put a price on safety? Apparently the big manufacturers can, and do.
To learn more about SawStop and what it would take for manufacturers to incorporate such a safety device, see this article from the Oregonian.
This was posted
on Wednesday, March 31st, 2010 and is filed in the General categories.
