It was refreshing to have an in-person ASC O1 meeting in Charlotte North Carolina this July after the hiatus. Always nice to meet and work face-to-face with new and long-term committee members. This was a hybrid meeting with other members joining via Zoom and thus very productive and effective.
A significant focus of this meeting was the continuation of O1.1. Within this, standards relating to a table saw were discussed. UL 987 has moved away from standards for table saws. However, many of those standards are well thought through and current. Thus the committee is researching adopting some of these standards into a stand-alone table saw standard for ASC O1 rather than having the table saw handled within the general machine standards.
B11.1-2020 was adopted as training requirements for employers to implement. This was good and inclusive regarding proper and safe training.
Remote control machines were discussed regarding safely operating/starting machines from remote locations (not within view of the machine). The challenge is to make sure these machines can be operated/started from remote locations without safety issues for personnel in the vicinity of the machine (operators, maintenance, observers, etc.) being operated.
An interesting topic of discussion was how ISO and ANSI standards are developed and the differing backgrounds of each system. For example, ANSI standards are designed to offer a safe machine and operating conditions while giving preference to performance design instead of specifying how to build or design a machine. ANSI does not want to stifle innovation by limiting or dictating machine parameters, rather it wants to promote forward thinking in design, applications, safety, etc. The other aspect to consider is that the ANSI consensus standard process differs from the international, government-based approach to standards development, governmental regulations, and legal liabilities as compared to most other countries. This needs to be taken into consideration when developing or adopting standards from other sources.
Four machine standards are currently in “draft phase” and include; gang rip saws, straight-line rip saws, edge banders and table saws. If you have input or expertise with any of these machines, we encourage you to get involved in the process, either as a subject matter expert or apply to join the ASC O1 committee by contacting ASC O1 Secretariat Nikki Augsburger at nikki@wmma.org.
Also, the most recent meeting of the US TAG (Technical Advisory Group) was an in-person meeting at WIC in May with an overview of TC39/SC4 activity.
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