Bladestop for bandsaw

[Van Huskey]

Intersting:

https://www.scottautomation.com/meat/bladestop/

[Mike Henderson]

That's great. I imagine a bandsaw can be dangerous in the meat industry. The workers are pushed to work fast which leads to accidents.

Mike

[Van Huskey]

That's great. I imagine a bandsaw can be dangerous in the meat industry. The workers are pushed to work fast which leads to accidents.

Mike

If you watch the video of the guys breakling down (I think it was lamb) it is CRAZY. Dunno how they keep their fingers long term.

[Andrew Hughes]

Hey that's great news no more finger tips in hamburger meat and sausage.:eek:
Hope it doesn't change the flavor profile too much.:)

Aj

[Van Huskey]

Hey that's great news no more finger tips in hamburger meat and sausage.:eek:
Hope it doesn't change the flavor profile too much.:)

Aj

Now I will slumber with visions of Upton Sinclair's "The Jungle" in my head. Poor, poor Jurgis.

[Jamie Buxton]

I wonder if they've licensed the Sawstop technology. Back when Sawstop first appeared on the scene, they said they were starting with the tablesaw, but they were soon going to do bandsaws. The whole tablesaw thing turned out to be a much bigger nut to crack than they anticipated, and they've never brought out a bandsaw. Perhaps they decided to tackle that market with licensing.

[Doug Garson]

Don't see how the Sawstop flesh sensing technology would work on a meat bandsaw that's basically cutting flesh and bone. They don't explain what the method is. The glovestop seems to be a camera that recognizes the blue glove too close to the blade.

[mreza Salav]

I wonder if they've licensed the Sawstop technology. Back when Sawstop first appeared on the scene, they said they were starting with the tablesaw, but they were soon going to do bandsaws. The whole tablesaw thing turned out to be a much bigger nut to crack than they anticipated, and they've never brought out a bandsaw. Perhaps they decided to tackle that market with licensing.

There was a demo model long time ago but I don't know if it ever got anywhere

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W3PLwNccpXU

I agree with Van, how they can keep all their fingers or hands long term without such a protection given the way they work. It's crazy...

[Van Huskey]

Don't see how the Sawstop flesh sensing technology would work on a meat bandsaw that's basically cutting flesh and bone. They don't explain what the method is. The glovestop seems to be a camera that recognizes the blue glove too close to the blade.

The Glove Check tech seems straight forward but I don't get the flesh sensing procedure either on a meat saw, unless the capacitance of living human flesh is different enough from the dead flesh to differentiate between them. In any case it seems like an easy transition to wood saws. I would am quit interested in seeing the "inside" of the bandsaw. I wonder of they are using spoked aluminum wheels to reduce mass the amount of energy stored in cast iron BS wheels would be huge compared to the weight of a 10" TS blade.

It is indeed possible this is Sawstop tech but in any event I am not sure how much market penetration SS could get in the wood BS market far more people spend "big" money on a TS than a BS and there aren't too many used in industry any more. I have a feeling the price jump is even bigger to incorporate it into a BS but certainly could be absorbed in the production level meat cutting industry like in the video. A company could probably break even in a short period of time via depreciation and reduced Worker's Comp premiums. Watching the speed of those guys work accidents HAVE to be common, I know they develop muscle memory and a 6th sense of where the blade is but 40 hours a week doing that is NUTS.

[Dan Friedrichs]

The Glove Check is obviously some optical system that looks for "blue". You can see the blade stop before even contacting the person's finger.

I don't get the flesh sensing, though. In the video, they appeared to put a hot dog in a clear glove, and somehow it sensed contact with that? I couldn't tell if the operator had his hand touching the hot dog (under the glove), though. I guess it's reasonable to assume that the workers will always have gloves on, so they are electrically separated from the meat (until an accident occurs). They needn't necessarily have a capacitive sensor - perhaps the worker puts on an ankle strap that electrically connects them and a circuit senses current flow to that.

Seems like a blade-clamping brake would work if you could also quickly de-tension the blade.

[Doug Garson]

Seems like a blade-clamping brake would work if you could also quickly de-tension the blade.
Another approach would be to have a brake on the drive wheel and a clutch on the drive shaft along with a switch to cut power to the motor.

[Ben Rivel]

Very cool. Wish SawStop would have put into production their version. I would LOVE something like a 20" SawStop bandsaw.

[Eric Schmid]

If you watch the video of the guys breakling down (I think it was lamb) it is CRAZY. Dunno how they keep their fingers long term.

Have you seen this video of a guy cutting shingles/shake? I don't know how he keeps his fingers (and other parts) short term.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B3HBfj423cc

[Kevin McCluney]

[QUOTE=Van Huskey;2613969]I would am quit interested in seeing the "inside" of the bandsaw.

Not sure I'd want to inspect the inside of it too closely - I certainly wouldn't want to have to clean the inside of one of those bandsaws... ;) On the other hand, dust collection doesn't appear to be much of a concern.

[Peter Aeschliman]

Have you seen this video of a guy cutting shingles/shake? I don't know how he keeps his fingers (and other parts) short term.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B3HBfj423cc

:eek::eek::eek:

^literally the face I made when I watched that.

[Van Huskey]

[QUOTE=Van Huskey;2613969]I would am quit interested in seeing the "inside" of the bandsaw.

Not sure I'd want to inspect the inside of it too closely - I certainly wouldn't want to have to clean the inside of one of those bandsaws... ;) On the other hand, dust collection doesn't appear to be much of a concern.

The good thing is they are stainless and have washdown motors on meat saws so they get the hose. In any event I meant a new one... :)

[Wade Lippman]

[QUOTE=Van Huskey;2613969]I would am quit interested in seeing the "inside" of the bandsaw.

Not sure I'd want to inspect the inside of it too closely - I certainly wouldn't want to have to clean the inside of one of those bandsaws... ;) On the other hand, dust collection doesn't appear to be much of a concern.

That was my first job in high school. After they cut meat "dust" all day, I got to clean it. It was a week before I could do it without gagging.

I "think" the bandsaw stops by contacting the glove. They probably put something on the hot dog that was like the gloves. Just guessing.

[Charlton Wang]

Barf.... I'm not a vegetarian but watching that video is almost enough to make me want to be.

[Mike Henderson]

Barf.... I'm not a vegetarian but watching that video is almost enough to make me want to be.

Do not ever go to a slaughter house if you feel that cutting up the carcasses is bad. Doesn't matter what animal is being slaughtered - chickens, pigs, cows - it's definitely not pretty. Often the guys who work in a slaughterhouse are pretty cold about what they do and are not very gentle with the animals.

I sometime wonder how they get people to work there. You'd have to be hard up for a job (in my opinion).

Mike

[Van Huskey]

Do not ever go to a slaughter house if you feel that cutting up the carcasses is bad. Doesn't matter what animal is being slaughtered - chickens, pigs, cows - it's definitely not pretty. Often the guys who work in a slaughterhouse are pretty cold about what they do and are not very gentle with the animals.

I sometime wonder how they get people to work there. You'd have to be hard up for a job (in my opinion).

Mike

My father raised show cattle (yes that is a thing) on a hobby level, we always slaughtered 1-2 steers a year to fill the freezer. He took me to the abattoir when I was 5 or 6 and I got an introduction to that world. While I am far from a vegetarian I do have a huge amount of compassion for animals and I have often wondered if that trip wasn't the genesis of it. I wouldn't take a child that young today since I think it could go the opposite way.

I agree Mike, being around and involved in wholesale death on a daily basis can't be good for a person.

[Charlton Wang]

Thanks for the warning. I have no inclination to visit a slaughterhouse and I know if I had to kill an animal to eat, it would likely push me over the edge of becoming a vegetarian. This is the one thing in my life where I feel truly hypocritical---eating meat but definitely not willing to do the dirty work myself.

[Roger Feeley]

GREAT IDEA!

I remember reading that it costs $100,000 to re-attach a thumb. In the Bladestop video, they mentioned that they had 17 saves in a month. Elsewhere in the video, they mentioned that they had 80 bladestops in use. If we do that math, that's 204 saves per year / 80 or 2.55 saves per unit per year. Multiply that times $100K and you get $255K payback per year. Now, use statistics from elsewhere that say that about 10% of table saw injuries are amputations. I get to $25K/year savings per saw. I think the device just makes fiscal sense (assuming that you are going to bother re-attaching the digits).

I freely admit that I pulled together some pretty shady numbers. But I stand by my gut feeling that this thing is going to do well.