10 SawStop
®
10” Industrial Cabinet Saw
The SawStop Safety System
This table saw is equipped with the
SawStop
®
safety system. This revolutionary technology was developed to
reduce the potential for a serious injury in the event of accidental contact with the saw blade.
SawStop
®
table saws
are the first saws ever built to be smart enough to know the difference between you and the wood you are cutting.
The
SawStop
®
safety system includes two
components, an electronic detection unit and
a fast-acting brake. The electronic detection
unit detects when a person contacts the blade.
A small electrical signal is induced onto the
blade by electrodes placed around the arbor.
Although this low voltage, high frequency signal
is too small to feel, it can be measured by the
detection system. When human skin comes
into contact with the blade (or arbor), a portion
of the signal is absorbed by the body due to the
inherent electrical capacitance of the human
body. As a result, the signal on the blade gets
smaller and the detection unit recognizes this
as contact.
Wood and other non-conductive materials
such as plastic, foam, cardboard, Corian
®
,
melamine, etc., do not cause a drop in the
signal because those materials do not absorb
the signal on the blade. Conductive materials such as aluminum and other metals, carbon fiber materials, mirrored
acrylic, carbon-filled materials, etc., will typically cause the brake to activate. If you need to cut these conductive
materials, the safety system can be placed in “Bypass” mode to temporarily disable the brake. (See page 33 for
instructions on how to use the saw in Bypass mode.)
The fast-acting brake includes a small fuse that holds a strong spring in compression. If the electronic detection
unit detects contact while the blade is spinning (including during coast down), the fuse is burned by a surge of
electric current. The spring then pushes an aluminum brake into the teeth of the spinning blade. The teeth cut into
the brake, stopping the blade. The total time between the detection of contact and stopping the blade is just a few
milliseconds. If the brake is activated while the blade is at or near full speed, the blade will also quickly retract below
the table. The system will not activate the brake when the blade is stopped–even if you spin the blade by hand. This
allows you to touch or change the blade when the motor is off just as with ordinary table saws. However, for safety,
always switch the Main Power and Disconnect switches to OFF when changing the blade.
The
SawStop
®
safety system is active whenever the Main Power is on. The safety system continuously
performs many different self-checks to ensure that the components of the system are operating properly. If any
problems are detected, the safety system will disable the motor and display a
system status code
to identify the
problem (see page 30 for a description of the system status codes and the corrective action). If the problem is
detected while the motor is spinning, the motor will be shut off. The safety system will not allow the motor to be
started, even in Bypass mode, as long as a problem is detected.
The electronic detection unit and fast-acting brake are contained in the “brake cartridge,” which is positioned
under the table and just behind the blade (see Fig. 1). The brake cartridge must be correctly installed before the
motor can be started (see page 41 for instructions on removing/installing the brake cartridge). In the event that the
brake is activated, a new brake cartridge must be installed before the saw can be used again.
Fig. 1
Brake Cartridge
