Patent ID: 8082825

Claim:
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.