CPSC Awards Commendation to SawStop, LLC

Quote

WASHINGTON, D.C. - The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) announced today that Chairman Ann Brown has awarded the Chairman's Commendation to SawStop, LLC, of Wilsonville, Ore., for developing innovative safety technology for power saws intended to prevent finger amputations and other serious injuries. The SawStop system for woodworking uses sensor technology to stop the blade if contact with a human hand or finger is detected.

More Info:
http://www.cpsc.gov/cpscpub/prerel/prhtml01/01202.html

How it works:

http://www.sawstop.com/howworks.htm

(Thanks to Phillip for finding this)

And if we could put them on chain saws, the Texas Chainsaw Massacre would become very hard to accomplish!

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In seriousness, this is remarkable, I hope they can make them cheap enough to be used...

An Article on this invention discusses the way it works and was tested.

http://www.toolsofthetrade.net/content/tools/2000/novdec/deadstop/default.asp

I saw the Sawstop video was in slow-mo. This could make a difference between having a puncture or being ripped apart.