Last week the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) proposed a new rule to make tablesaws safer. The proposal requires that table saws limit the depth of cut to 3.5 millimeters when a stand-in for a human finger (a hot dog is commonly used) contacts the spinning blade while approaching at 1 meter per second. The new rule does’t provide guidance on how to do this, but we can assume it means a braking system like the one pioneered by SawStop. Should the new rule be made law, it would seem like a huge boon to the SawStop company, as the only other competing saw was recently the subject of another court action that said the Bosch REAXX violated SawStop’s patent by using the principle of capacitance as a means of flesh detection. The CPSC says the new rule is necessary to prevent the nearly 55,000 blade-contact injuries that require medical treatment and could save consumers anywhere from $625 million to about $2.3 billion in reduced medical payments, insurance claims and lost wages. The agency is soliciting comments for 75 days before taking further action.

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