Fraunhofer IPA (Institute for Manufacturing Engineering and Automation) recently conducted a study on two current safety assistance systems for sliding table saws: capacitive and camera-based safety assistance systems. Both principles use suitable sensors to first detect a hazardous situation and then remove the saw blade from the danger zone in the shortest possible time.

Both, the capacitive and the camera-based systems, reliably detected the test pieces under the selected test conditions and led to the lowering of the saw blades. However, only the camera-based system was able to avoid damage to the test specimens in all tests. With the successful certification by the German Employers’ Liability Insurance Association for Wood and Metal, Altendorf is setting the future standard for safety in sliding table saws.

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