I own a SawStop, and I'm not going to get into a safety/personal choice argument here.
I'm just a little confused by the proposed regulation. A saw that will cause a maximum of a 3.5mm cut when fed at 1m/sec??? Isn't 1m/sec an incredibly fast speed to feed wood into a table saw?
I also guessing that 3.5mm is so that it will only penetrate skin, not deeper, but I have no clue what the average thickness of skin on a hand is. (OK, just googled it - 1.5mm on the palm, <1mm on fingers, so why that number? Still can do some real damage, I'd imagine, at 3.5mm. Perhaps not completely amputate a finger, but still...) Some WAG thrown out by a bureaucrat?
OK, I just read the Federal Register report (I need to get a life). The UL has identified a 4 mm cut from the surface of the skin as the quantitative threshold separating simple and complex lacerations in a human finger.
"The Commission recognizes there may be some scenarios, such as kickback, which can cause the operator's hand to be pulled into the blade at a high rate of speed or lead the operator to reach as fast as possible for a falling workpiece. In these and other scenarios, the speed of the operator's hand or finger may exceed 1 m/s when it contacts the saw blade. At approach speeds greater than 1 m/s, AIM system performance may not be sufficient to prevent injuries that require extensive medical attention. The use of AIM technology may, however, limit injuries where an incident otherwise would have resulted in an amputation or involved injury to several digits or a wider area, to permit instead microsurgical repair of nerves, blood vessels, and tendons. Thus, the Commission concludes that nearly all operator blade-contact injuries from table saws would be eliminated or mitigated by the proposed performance requirement."
There are actually real thoughtful arguments, debate, comments from consumers/companies and conclusions in that report. It's an interesting read, again if you need to get a life. So rare for our government these days. They are proposing 36 month delay instead of the usual 180 day maximum for implementation to allow other manufacturers to design and implement AIM systems.
So there's that...
Last edited by Alan Lightstone; 01-26-2024 at 8:52 AM.
- After I ask a stranger if I can pet their dog and they say yes, I like to respond, "I'll keep that in mind" and walk off
- It's above my pay grade. Mongo only pawn in game of life.