E06 Safer Saws- Dublin517

1.) Manufacturers: Mission statement from Sawstop website

a.) “ Our saws, besides being the highest quality and best featured saws in their market segments, feature the ability to detect contact with skin and stop the blade in less than 5 milliseconds.”

 

b.) The manufacturers of Sawstop are saying that their saw is the highest quality saw and can tell when it is in contact with skin and stops immediately.

c.) This claim is both factual and opinionated. It is undeniable that the saw stops after 5 milliseconds, becuase it has been tested and experimented upon in order to prove so. However, there is no evidence to back up that it is the “highest quality and best featured saw in their market segments.” that is the opinion of the Sawstop company.

d.) I do not doubt that Sawstop saws are high quality, but to say that they are the highest quality is the company’s attempt to persuade people into buying their saw. I believe by mentioning the speed in which the saw stops (when in contact with human skin) is a logical aspect that is persuading enough! For the most part, the information is believable and accurate; overall, the sentence is not that ridiculous of a tagline to be used in trying to sell their product.

2.) Customers: Testimony from Sawstop website

a.) “Some stacked material fell over and pushed my hand into the blade. SawStop saved my finger and allowed me to avoid a costly trip to the hospital.”

b.) An accident occurred in this contractor workshop, and the Sawstop blade prevented him from needing medical assistance.

c.) This is a factual and even categorical claim.

d.)The customer tells the story of how his hand got pushed onto the blade and why the Sawstop mechanism was triggered-this could be false, but as far as we are aware it is true. He says that the Sawstop blade “saved” his finger, which is an accurate statement because regular table saws are known for taking fingers completely off. He categorizes those serious types of injuries as costly and hospital worthy; which most sane people would agree with. The claim is accurate and persuasive in conveying the quality of the Sawstop blade.

3.) Power Tool Reviewer: Clint DeBoer, an Author from ProTool Review online magazine

a.) No offense, but I don’t think this is a move by Bosch (or any other tool manufacturer for that matter) to prevent safety devices, but simply a move to prevent the unintended consequences of adding mandatory safety devices that would, in some instances, double the price of entry level power saws.

b.) Clint DeBoer, is arguing that the saw manufacturers are declining to use Sawstop technology, not to be unsafe, but to keep the price of entry level power saws affordable.

c.) This is an opinion claim.

d.) This is clearly DeBoer’s opinion, it is an informal sentence “No offense, but I don’t think…” in which he why he gives his thoughts on why Bosch did not utilize Sawstop technology. He is an author reporting on the drama occurring in Washington over these saws, it’s his purpose to give his opinion. I think this is a reasonable claim and can see the logic he uses to base his argument. The companies do not want to prevent entry-level consumers from being able to afford a saw, and if a safety requirement was to be set in place, the price of all saws would go up!

e.) I do think there are ulterior motives however, DeBoer does not address how the companies may just be avoiding the cost of licensing the technology takes away from the company’s profits.

4.) Injured Plaintiff: Ryszard Wec

a.) “By agreeing not [to] employ such safer alternatives, defendant and its competitors attempted to assure that those alternatives would not become ‘state of the art,’ thereby attempting to insulate themselves from liability for placing a defective product on the market”

b.) Wec is saying that the saw manufacturers are not adopting the Sawstop technology, in order to protect themselves from lawsuits and liability surrounding saws without the technology.

c.)This is an opinion claim.

d.) Potentially, there are many reasons why the company would not want to include the Sawstop technology, like prices for instance. However, what Wec says is reasonable, and a logical assumption to come to. The statement is not ridiculous and far-fetched, in fact it is quite believable, however; it is only one opinion.

5.) Industry Spokespeople: Power Tool Institute

a.) “Logic dictates that this increase in accident rate on SawStop saws is due primarily to a user’s decision to use the blade guard less frequently due to a “sense of security” in having the SawStop flesh-sensing technology on the saw.”

b.) The Power Tool Institute is saying that the assumed reason for the higher level of accidents in Sawstops is because people do not use the blade guard as a result of the safety promised by the Sawstop technology.

c.) This is an opinion claim.

d.) This claim was found under the title “Unintended Consequences [of the Sawstop]”. This sounds like a logical explanation, people feel more safe with the Sawstop and therefore feel as though the blade guard is pointless. This is not an unreasonable statement. However it is misleading because it makes itself sound like a proven statistic, when really it is just an assumption “logic dictates”.

e.) While this is a reasonable cause and effect idea, based on what I have read from other sources, a lot of consumers do not use the blade guard ever, Sawstop or not. The blade guard is apparently difficult to use for most types of projects, which sounds more reasonable than the conjecture provided by the Power Tool Institute.

6.) News Reporter: Myron Levin-Mother Jones

a.) “For more than a decade, toolmakers and the Power Tool Institute, their trade group, have defended the design of conventional table saws and their decision to not adopt SawStop or a similar safety device.”

b.) This claim is describing the current state of affairs with the Sawstop technology. The manufacturers do not want to adopt the Sawstop.

C.) For the most part, I see this as a factual claim.

d.) Based on all of the reading I have done for this assignment, the general consensus backs up this claim. Ever since Gass came out with Sawstop, the toolmaking companies have been refusing it, and the Power Tool Institute supports them. This is probably the most reasonable and agreeable statement I have chosen.

7.) Consumer Safety Advocates: Chairman Inez M. Tenenbaum of the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission

a.) “Last year, I called on the table saw industry to address this hazard through the voluntary standards process and work to prevent the needless injuries that occur each and every day. Despite my public urging for the power tool industry to make progress voluntarily on preventing these injuries, no meaningful revisions to the voluntary standard were made.”

b.) The chairman said that he asked the table saw industry to make improvements in safety voluntarily, and they still have not made any serious improvements.

c.) I believe this is a factual as well as opinionated claim.

d.) It is fact that Tenenbaum asked the companies to comply voluntarily, but what exactly is a meaningful revision? The definition of what Tenenbaum calls a meaningful revision to the safety of saws, may be a very different definition to say, a manufacturer. However, the rest of the claim is still logical and believable.

8.) Amputee: Mike M.

a.) “It gets to your finances, with doctor bills, medications and things you can’t do any more to make money you used to make.”

b.) Mike is saying that the loss of his finger has put a financial burden on his life.

c.)This is an opinion claim.

d.) This claim is showing the effects of not having Sawstop, it can financially affect a person for the rest of their life. This claim was found on the Sawstop website and is used to persuade consumers into buying a safer saw. It is an accurate summation of the affects of an amputation.