It was in Berlin in 1906, while trying to find a better way to manufacture his furniture designs, that Wilhelm Altendorf developed a machine saw with a sliding table that guides the workpiece over the saw blade. His brainwave would go on to achieve legendary status, and "the Altendorf" made his company the world market leader for sliding table saws. Today, the Altendorf Group, which is now also home to Hebrock edge banding machines, is dedicated to making fine craftsmanship future proof and, more importantly, perfectly safe. It is this pursuit of perfection that has culminated in the next generation of the company’s very own safety system - the Altendorf Hand Guard.

The Hand Guard is geared around early detection as the best way to stop hazardous situations arising in the first place. To put it another way, the system reacts before the operator’s hand can even come into contact with the saw blade. The secret to this success lies in an optical system comprising two cameras and a high-performance program that identifies and classifies previously defined scenarios in next to no time. As soon as a hazardous scenario is detected, the Hand Guard system lowers the saw unit out of the way within a quarter of a second and brings the blade to a stop. To ensure the saw can be put back to use straight away, all the user has to do is quickly initiate the safety assistant - and neither the machine nor the saw blade are damaged by the process. The Hand Guard system has proven so impressive that it has even secured Altendorf victory in the "Industry and craftsmanship" category of the prestigious OWL Innovation Award.

Altendorf GmbH (32429 Minden, Germany)
Website: www.altendorf.com/en/home