Since he launched Sawstop LLC a decade ago, Gass has addressed the situation by building and selling saws of his own. During that time, he's sold 30,000 of them. His technology has reportedly saved more than a thousand fingers -- that is, fingers that touched the blades and received minor cuts but were not severed. None of his customers have lost a finger as yet. Soon, Gass plans to extend his technology from professional table saws to consumer saws, and then to handheld circular saws.
But while Gass has been building and selling saws, the Consumer Product Safety Commission has re-visited his case. In May, the organization voted again to allocate resources to prepare for new rulemaking, Gass says. If a so-called "performance requirement" results, the CPSC could call for a mandate on an active injury mitigation system in table saws.
To be sure, the government wouldn’t mandate use of Gass's particular technology. But it could require incorporation of a technology that employs an active sensing and prevention system. In addition, Gass says Underwriters Laboratories (UL) is considering writing a standard for an active mitigation system, as well. UL did not return calls regarding this.
Gass considers that a victory. And after 12 years, he believes his work continues to be significant. "It seems that whenever I sit on an airplane, someone next to me says their dad, brother, uncle, or friend had an accident with a saw," he says. "It's just so commonplace."
He claims he's never been sorry that he left a thriving law practice for his new life as a manufacturer. "It was a disappointment that it didn't work out in a year or two," he says. "But I enjoy what I do here. I enjoy working on technology. I'm just a geek at heart."
This should help prevent accidental injuries and hopefully there is a measure in place to prevent tampering of the safety device. This article should be tied into the common sense article. Safety is only as good as the person using the tool.Engineers can always design safety into the equipment, but in the end it comes down to the operator.
This important safety story reminds me of seat belts, shoulder-harness seat belts, and air bags. All of those developments were around years before they were widely adopted. Of course, as you point out here, there's a little bit more involved in terms of retooling. Still, you'd think the prospect of spare digits (not to mention, prevention of deaths) would be something that'd get customers crying out to the vendors to implement this great feature. (Everyone should see that video.)
We recently posted an online slideshow called, “18 People You Didn’t Know Were Engineers.” Within hours of its publication, readers began to suggest names of other luminaries -- astronauts, politicians, athletes and actors -- who were educated or had worked as engineers.
In yet another sign that hydrogen is creeping into the consciousness of global automotive designers, sports car maker Aston Martin plans to run a hydrogen-fueled vehicle in a 24-hour Grand Touring race later this month.
One of the ugly truths of engineering is that life has a price. Cars, buildings, power plants, and industrial machinery can always be made safer for a cost, but manufacturers are at the mercy of the market.
Front-seat television technology is beginning to creep into the worldwide automotive market, but regulators, automakers, and suppliers say it’s unlikely to take hold in the US.
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