| SawStop brings table saw blades to a halt |
| Last week, a Boston jury agreed in a landmark trial, awarding a Massachusetts man $1.5 million for mangling his hand on a table saw made by Ryobi, one of the world’s largest saw makers.
Now, 60 similar cases nationwide claim that the standard design of table saws, unchanged for decades, is defective. In addition, they claim manufacturers are negligent in failing to adopt a flesh-detecting technology like SawStop’s, which has been on the market since 2004. Ryobi, Black & Decker and the Power Tool Institute, an industry group, declined to comment for this story, citing the litigation. For SawStop, the cases — along with renewed interest from the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission — represent a major score in the long fight for acceptance, which could lead to big dividends for the Tualatin-based company. |