Well done on all your time and effort, and bringing about something that you deem as safer than what your friend used, and sadly was injured by.
As most of us here work really hard on keeping our bars and chains away from the ground and dirt, this machine does, on initial impression seem to bring the bar down into the dirt zone, even if its above the ground, and not hitting the dirt so to speak, dirt is splashed up a bit from the ground from wind/ rain / traffic etc.
So our natural thoughts would be on both chain and guide bar longevity.
I see that you covered that on your webpage, and agree on the angle of attack, but its still going to be an issue especially if your doing coastal wind blown, or naturally dusty conditions.
Then comes the mobility of it, and how easy/ hard it would be to get to where it needs to be used, and then how it works in different terrain/ slopes etc.
it looks ok on flat ground, but how would it go on rocky uneven surfaces, does the chain then grab/ bind and move the unit harshly, ?
I do like its application regarding bamboo tho, if its not too large / established.
Personally I think the power is fine for the application, as I dont see that taking down larger bits of trees due to its design, thus the power vs weight vs fuel burn consideration you put into it, I think thats a good well thought out balance.
What was your friend using at the time when he injured himself, a whipper snipper with a blade on it clearing small saplings, or a chainsaw that kicked back ?
as far as it replacing a chain saw, I could not see a use for it for me, but I am not a landscape gardener.
If I was clearing lots of small growth on clear flat areas, then maybe from a safety aspect I could see it having a place if you had others working for you who maybe were not that good at using a whipper snipper with a blade on.
This seems where your aiming, considering your webpage info.
In summary, Well done on your time and effort into tackling a problem and making aspects of your work safer, that deserves much credit and recognition.
Well done.
Will others capture the vision and take to your product, well I guess some will and some wont, and some will after actually using one and seeing how it can fit their application/ work requirements.
Again well done on thinking outside the box so to speak, and putting your dreams into a final ready to sell product, that alone deserves much admiration and respect.
Edited to add.
I could see this being popular in Tasmania where they have quite a bit of bracken fern to deal with, and maybe NZ too, so hope you have considered the option of an international seller too, but yes, that is a whole new area of paperwork and headaches to deal with, let alone cost of shipping and OS taxes and consumer law.
