Table saws can make working with wood a breeze. They can also take fingers off the unwary in the blink of an eye. To help avoid the latter, Bosch has come up with its Reaxx portable jobsite table saw, which can tell the difference between a piece of wood and a finger, and drop the blade out of the way to prevent a messy accident.
Table saws that can detect and avoid slicing off fingers aren't new, but the technology has its limitations. The SawStop system, for example, uses the difference in conductivity between wood and flesh, then stops the blade before it can cause more than a nick. Unfortunately, it does so using a brake that ruins the blade, which needs to be replaced before work can resume.
The Bosch Reaxx table saw, on the other hand, uses the Bosch Active Response Technology platform to detect wayward fingers. Unlike SawStop, the Reaxx doesn't brake the blade. Instead, a piston release drops the blade and pushes it out of the way before it can cause serious injury.
According to Bosch, the advantage of the Reaxx table saw is not only that is prevents accidents, but that it can be easily reset in under a minute. The mechanism is activated by a two-shot cartridge, which only needs replacing after two incidents. All that needs to be done is to rotate the cartridge and reset the drop mechanism before work can resume.
A bypass is built in to allow the saw to be used on conductive materials that might otherwise trigger the drop mechanism, but an on-board control system prevents this being used without permission. Various lockout options are also built into the system to prevent a worker from simply turning the safety off and an LED light panel displays the saw's status ranging from okay to use, to bypass, to red for the saw is locked and won't operate.
In addition to the panel, the Reaxx table saw also comes with an NFC-enabled phone app to allow supervisors to monitor the saw's status, lock the saw, and to authorize which workers can work the bypass.
The Bosch Reaxx table saw will be available later this year for US$1,499.
The video below shows the Reaxx table saw in action..
Source: Bosch
Where this sort of technology will likely become a must have or even mandatory is with companies who, if a worker is injured in an accident that could have been avoided or whose severity could have been reduced are liable to pay compensation to the injured worker and hefty fines if and when convicted of offenses under health and safety legislation.
Me I'd rather just be careful and not rely on high tech. to work so as to retain fingers and limbs.
I'm an Electrical/Electronic engineer and know that nothing can go wrong, go wrong, go wrong......................
The main potential problem I foresee is that insurance companies will start trying to lobby that all contractors will be legally required to use one of these to become licensed... and be out 1400.00. So we will end up with more government regulations.
I remember in school, if you cut mirrored acrylic on the SawStop, then WACK!, there goes another blade into the aluminum stop.
And to those that claim you will be less cautious around this thing... that definitely wasn't the case for us students. When someone tripped the safety system, it scared the crap out of them. So if anything, safety systems like this act as a reminder or a big slap-in-the-face wake up call. Not something you end up neglecting.
The thing I'd be concerned about with this saw is the speed of withdrawal. Sawstop was designed the way it is to get the blade to withdraw in a millisecond or less. The article doesn't specify the withdrawal speed on this mechanism. If it isn't at least that fast I'd go with sawstop. I'm less concerned with reset capability than I am with the saw not cutting anything unintended.
A good example of this is a pilot, with thousands of hours, landing with his gear up. All it takes is one distraction and the result is a very expensive incident. While the price is expensive, I know my limitations and would gladly pay the price.