Construction Worker Impaled When Power Saw Blade Shatters
A Houston, Texas construction worker is in the hospital recovering from wounds he received on the jobsite when the power saw blade he was using shattered. A piece of the blade reportedly impaled him in the chest. While none of the reports were specific to the exact kind of power saw or blade he was using, officials did say that it was the type used to cut metal and concrete. A reporter on the scene said officials told him that the worker was using a “universal saw”.
Workers were doing construction on the facade of a building when the accident happened. From the looks of the construction site, it’s possible he was using a power cutter or maybe even a circular saw with a universal blade. Regardless, officials are looking into the reasons that the power saw blade failed.
When injuries like this happen, it’s a good reminder to all of us that the tools we use each day are dangerous and accidents do happen. With that in mind, I posed the same question – what could have caused this blade to fail and shatter?
The most probable cause for a power saw blade to fail, whether it is a circular saw blade, power cutter blade, or something in between, is for it to suddenly strike hard material. When you’re cutting smoothly through a softer material, say wood, and suddenly strike a harder material like metal or concrete, all of the power is suddenly trying to push through at the same speed. Something has to give. Most of the time, we get a chipped tooth or break the concrete some. When conditions are right though, the power can shatter the blade instead.
Another possibility is improper installation or using an incorrectly sized blade arbor. When a blade is spinning at 6,000 RPM, any motion that causes wobble is going to lead to blade failure. Using a blade with the wrong arbor size could cause the blade to jump on the spindle when it hits a harder material, which would absolutely create conditions that cause shattering.
A factor that contributes to blade failure in any circumstance is the steel blend itself. To cut through harder materials, you need a harder blade. As the hardness of the steel increases, so does it’s brittleness. So as you go from softer to harder steel, the probability that failure can occur as shattering increases.
Have you ever experienced any kind of power saw blade shattering? We want to hear about your story!
