Health and safety system for a table saw
OwnerDavid J. Butlerinventor
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
An improved health and safety system for a table saw includes one or more of: a blade guard that protects the operator from the saw blade, and contains and collects sawdust; a proximity detector and emergency saw motor braking means for use in connection with such blade guard; an anti-kickback device for use in connection with such blade guard, a rip fence adapter for use in connection with such a blade guard, and hoses and fittings to connect the dust containment and collection system of said blade guard to a shop dust collection blower or vacuum system. The system protects the saw operator from potential traumatic injury to a hand, and from ingesting potentially carcinogenic sawdust.
Claims9
A health and safety device adapted for attachment to a planar sawing table (62) and a rotary saw mounted therein, comprising
- a support structure (11;
- 71) coupled to the sawing table at a location which permits free passage of a workpiece past a rotating blade of said saw,
- a blade enclosure (2) open along a plane parallel to said planar sawing table and having walls surrounding said saw blade, for purposes of both separating body parts of a saw operator from said saw blade and keeping sawdust produced during sawing operations away from a saw operator,
- a contact detector mounted along at least a portion of bottom edges of said blade enclosure which, during saw operation, detects direct electrical contact between a conductor, forming part of said detector, and any portion of a saw operator's body, and generates a hazard signal;
- a motor braking circuit which responds to said hazard signal by rapidly electromagnetically braking rotation of said saw blade by DC injection braking to avoid or minimize operator harm;
- and
- an adjustable fixation device (34, 38) for fixing said blade enclosure (2) at a desired elevation above said sawing table for at least the duration of a cutting operation, said elevation being selectable within a range and corresponding to a thickness of said workpiece, to thereby prevent workpiece kickback by constraining a face of the workpiece to the sawing table.
A health and safety device adapted for attachment to a planar sawing table (62) and a rotary saw mounted therein, comprising:
- a support structure (11;
- 71) coupled to the sawing table at a location which permits free passage of a workpiece past a rotating blade of said saw,
- a blade enclosure (2), open along a plane parallel to said planar sawing table, and having walls surrounding said saw blade, for purposes of both separating body parts of a saw operator from said saw blade and keeping sawdust produced during sawing operations away from a saw operator,
- a contact detector (17, 42) mounted along at least a portion of bottom edges of said blade enclosure which, during saw operation, detects direct electrical contact between a portion (42) of said detector and any portion of a saw operator's body and generates a hazard signal;
- and
- means (76, 77) for electromagnetically braking saw rotation by DC injection, in response to said hazard signal, within a predetermined short shutoff time interval, in order to prevent or minimize injury to said portion of said operator's body, and
- an adjustable fixation device (34, 38) for fixing said blade enclosure (2) at a desired elevation above said sawing table for at least the duration of a cutting operation, said elevation being selectable within a range and corresponding to a thickness of said workpiece, to thereby prevent workpiece kickback by constraining a face of the workpiece to the sawing table.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.