Casting cleanup injuries: How a camera system makes bandsaws safe

Anyone who works in a fettling shop knows the situation: when cutting off gates, risers, and runners on a bandsaw or cut-off machine, the operator's hands are just millimeters from the moving blade or disc.

A brief moment of inattention, an awkwardly shaped casting that slips — and the result is a serious laceration. Accident statistics confirm what most foundry workers already know: saws and grinding machines account for over half of all stationary machine accidents, and in 40 percent of all machine injuries, the hand is affected.

Contact sensors react too late

Keith Blenkinsopp set out to change that. The New Zealand-born mechanical engineer developed an entirely new safety concept for bandsaws and founded Guardian Bandsaw.

Blenkinsopp, whose wife is from Germany and who runs the now 100-plus-employee company as a family business, took a fundamentally different approach from conventional contact-based sensors. Instead of reacting only after the blade has already touched the operator, the system was designed to prevent injuries proactively.

Four cameras, one safety zone

The result is Guardian Bandsaw's patented 3D Vision technology. Four high-speed cameras monitor the blade from every direction, creating a three-dimensional safety zone around it.

The moment the system detects the operator's safety glove inside the zone, it triggers the braking mechanism and stops the blade before an injury can occur. The entire process takes milliseconds.

Over 1,000 machines sold, zero injuries, and major customers

What started in the meat industry has long since proven itself in metalworking. Today, more than 1,000 Guardian machines are in operation worldwide — all with a zero-injury record. Nearly half of them are in foundries and metal fabrication shops, cutting cast iron, aluminum, brass, steel, and other materials. Industrial reference customers include Caterpillar and a growing number of foundries across multiple continents.

The machines are built for continuous use in fettling operations and can be configured with coolant systems, dust extraction, clamping fixtures, and various table options. For brass, bronze, and superalloy castings, Guardian also offers a cut-off machine equipped with the same camera-based safety system.

Now with a local presence in Germany — and expanding globally

Since 2025, Guardian Bandsaw has operated its own GmbH in Germany and is a member of bdguss, the German foundry industry association. This gives European foundries a local point of contact for consulting, installation, and service.

For Keith Blenkinsopp, it represents a full-circle moment: what began as a New Zealand family business is now an international solution to one of the most persistent safety problems in industrial manufacturing.

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