WMMA Announces New Safety Standard for Fixed Angle Jump Saws
May 24, 2010 — Philadelphia, PA – The Wood Machinery Manufacturers of America® (WMMA®), a trade association of U.S. manufacturers of woodworking machinery, cutting tools, and supplies, today announced a new American National Standard Institute (ANSI) standard, Safety Requirements for Fixed Angle Jump Saws, O1.1-1 (2007).
Developed by the Accredited Standards Committee O1, Safety Requirements for Woodworking Machinery, the ANSI O1.1-1 (2007) is the first of a series of new woodworking machine-specific safety standards and is intended to be used in conjunction with ANSI O1.1.
"New machines are being introduced into the workplace, and older machines are becoming obsolete, both at a rate not suitable for a general purpose standard such as O1.1," said Committee Chair Michael L. Gililland, P.E., CSP, CFEI. "The committee began developing a series of smaller, machine-specific standards. The O1.1 continues as the general purpose standard for industrial woodworking machines and covers the general topics of machine and worker safety, with the new standard addressing issues unique to the machine of interest."
The scope of the jump saw standard, O1.1-1, covers the safety requirements for the design, installation, care and use of single blade, non-adjustable cut angle jump saws and certain related accessory equipment, used in industrial and commercial applications, having a total connected power of 5 hp (3.7 KW) or greater, or having 3-phase wiring.
Fixed angle saws may also be known as chop saws or cutoff saws. Jump saws have historically been pivot-mounted devices. However, modern jump saws may also use linear vertical travel and are therefore included in this standard. Fixed angle or non-adjustable cut angle are not intended to mean that the blade cannot be adjusted for precision or capacity, but rather that its cut angle is fixed by its design.
Other machine-specific safety standards under development include those for gang rip saws, straight line rip saws, shapers, edge banders, and CNC machining centers.
WMMA serves as the secretariat of the Accredited Standards Committee O1 and together they comprise the consensus body which develops standards for the safe design, installation and use of woodworking and accessory equipment used in industrial and commercial applications, having a total connected power of 3.7kw (5hp) or greater, or having 3-phase wiring.
The committee membership consists of volunteer representatives from users, distributors, insurers, manufacturers, safety organizations, regulatory agencies and test laboratories. The committee meets twice annually for several days to develop standards.
The ANSI O1.1-1 (2007) standard, Safety Requirements for Fixed Angle Jump Saws, is available in electronic format from the ANSI eStandards Store. For more information on purchasing the new standard, please visit: http://webstore.ansi.org/FindStandards.aspx?Action=displaydept&DeptID=3128&Acro=WMMADpName=Wood%20Machinery%20Manufacturers%20Association.
