Like Lightning, It Strikes Without Warning

Why today's powerful chainsaws call for a kickback guard to prevent injuries

Chainsaws, once the province of the logging industry, are now used by firefighters, utility workers, homeowners and others. These powerful tools perform all types of cutting jobs from saving lives to cutting firewood.

Over the last two decades chainsaw manufacturers have been systematically reducing weight and increasing power to the extent that saw chain can now reach speeds of 73,500 inches per minute or 70 mph. Current power-to-weight ratios make the chainsaw one of the most powerful and efficient cutting tools ever invented while at the same time creating a heightened risk of chainsaw kickback.

STATISTICS

The Do-It-Yourself Safety Guide from Black & Decker states, “Every year 70 people in the United States are killed carrying out do-it-yourself work and 250,000 are injured.”

The Consumer Product Safety Commission found that the number of chainsaw accidents requiring medical attention increased from 70,000 to 135,000 annually over a five year period. These accidents appear to be increasing at the alarming rate of 10 percent per year.

According to Jill Webster, Ph.D., in an article on chainsaw safety in Agricultural Health and Safety, she states, "By far the most common cause of chainsaw accidents is "kickback."'

Kickback, according to OSHA, is a “strong thrust of the saw back toward the operator, generally resulting from improper use of the nose of the bar or the pinching of the bar in a cut.” The sudden and forceful kickback poses a serious hazard to experienced users, as well as occasional users.

SAFETY TECHNOLOGY

Chainsaw manufacturers have attempted to develop safety devices to reduce kickback. Today's chainsaws now sport a variety of safety features including: hand guards, chain brakes, throttle locks, chain catchers, inertia brakes, vibration dampeners, and easily accessibly stop controls.

Unfortunately, however, safety devices, safety training, proper clothing and taking frequent breaks, cannot guarantee that kickback injuries won’t occur. One of the reasons is that kickback, like lightning, strikes without warning and is faster than human reflexes can react to it.

BIRTH OF AN ANSWER

When an Oregon millwright suffered a deep chest wound caused by kickback, he devoted the next five years of his life designing a device that would protect him and others from this life-threatening malady. As a highly skilled chainsaw operator, he knew that there was nothing available to stop kickback so he did the next best thing...he designed a device that would help prevent injuries when kickback occurred.

Safeguard Ventures, LLC became interested in the device after reviewing more than ten years of promising field testing data and learning of the numerous referrals the inventor had received from local fire departments, lumber companies, and public agencies.

After conducting an in-depth comparative analysis of chainsaw safety devices, Safeguard bought the patent, re-engineered the design and is now distributing the product under the name, Centurion™.

To minimize the risk of injury, the Centurion protects by keeping a solid alloy steel bar between the cutting chain and the operator. When kickback happens, the Centurion stops the cutting chain from making bodily contact without slowing the operator down in the process. In fact, due to the added safety and piece of mind that the Centurion provides, chainsaw operators typically work more efficiently.

Safeguard's motto for its flagship product is—"It only needs to work once"—summarizing the safety device’s strongest benefit.

STATUS QUO / THE CENTURION