What is the Importance of Laser Safety Goggles?
Using high-power burning lasers come with inherent risks if not used properly. The best way to minimize the risk and protect yourself as well as any spectators is by using wavelength-specific goggles. You can find these laser-specific goggles in several styles. They can fit over regular glasses or can they can straightforward and functional. Making the most of a powerful laser beam requires taking precautions to protect the eyes. So further in this blog, we are going to take a look at how laser safety goggles work and why they are important.
Wavelength protection
If you have done some research about laser pointers or have some basic knowledge about how the light spectrum works, you know that every color we can see has a specific wavelength of light that portrays the actual length of the wave itself. Long wavelengths are long and ultraviolet such as 355nm UV lasers are not visible to human eyes because they don’t fall within the visible light spectrum.
Then there is the visible light spectrum which we can see and that’s why can identify different colors and color combinations such as green, red blue, yellow, purple, and more. Then there are high wavelengths which are infrared 800nm-2200nm and these are also not visible to human eyes.
You can find the laser safety goggles online and they protect your eyes as they are tuned to block a specific wavelength of light. For instance, if you are using a 200nmW green laser pointer at 523nm, a pair of laser goggles that protects 880nm will not do anything because they are designed to only block 880nm and can make the exposure worse. So make sure to purchase eyewear that covers a range of wavelengths.
When do you need to use laser safety protection?
There is some debate on this issue as some experts say not until you reach a burning laser threshold, others say you should always use laser eyewear, and rest say that it depends on the design of the laser so you need to determine if it has the IR filters or not. It is a good idea that while using a high-power handheld laser that can light matches and pop balloons, use laser safety goggles.
Continue Reading…