...snipped
Take extreme care, permanent thermal damage can be caused with no sensation and the retina does not repair itself (AFAIK). Use appropriate protective eye wear when working with lasers.
Dave S
I've been looking for appropriate eye protection for class I lasers (850nm), but I have yet to find anything specific to this class.
That's the whole point of Class 1 FFS!!
Well you get so many contradictory postings that it's difficult to know what's right. So is it not dangerous to look into a class I laser beam then? From the calculations I've seen, the power density from a 1mW laser is 167 times greater than staring at the sun.
As the old lab joke sign reads;
"Do not look into laser with remaining eye."
Sorry, didn't realise you were talking about Class 1; they're inherently safe. Some years ago I was working with a YAG laser (3A or 3B) for some investigations into EHT discharge but even took precautions when using the HeNe sighting laser - the mandatory education had some pretty graphic examples of what can happen and the regular eye examinations reinforced the risk (and yes, I did end up with a small retinal scar despite taking all precautions and not realising anything had happened; fortunately it doesn't affect my vision in practice).
Dave S
It depends what you mean 'look'. If you intend to stare at it for several minutes, you may cause some damage. Staring at a 60W lighbulb for a similar amount of time might also cause some damage. So might poking yourself in the eye with a stck. It's all about what is sensible.
If you catch a glimpse of a Class 1 beam, no problem. Stare into it for a few seconds, again no problem.
This sounds very unlikely, but it all depends on the spot size of course.
What fun, I've got a pair of excimers at work, and a few others too, inc. a femtosecond monster....
Impossible to tell. The "class" system is completely broken.
Simple safety rule is to be afraid, very afraid, of anything collimated and to always stay at least a foot away from any output lenses. This will keep you safe from anything up to class 3 with lenses smaller than "enormous". For anything less than this, the beam is divergent and just keeping a good distance away from it will keep the intensity to a safe level. You just can't make "killer beams" with any effective range unless you have a big output lens - go read up on Fresnel limits and diffraction
I've never seen a class 4 that was optically any more hazardous than its electrics, or in rare cases its chemistry or even its 160dB noise level.
('Bat, BSc Laser Physics)
If its properly cased, like our commercial excimers, a lot of class 4's are safe electrically. Its when you start talking about ablating through half a pig, a demo by a prof to his staff when he caught them down range playing with the mirrors live, in 5 pulses leaving a 20 cm dia hole that you start to wonder just how many are just plain stupid!
His name isn't George Goble, is it?
Where do you work?! I use vis/NIR/NUV CW, max 300mW.
No, Harvey Rutt.
And I'd be very careful of fibre lasers anyway, even if its not a 1Kw one.
ORC
In message , Badger writes
I haven't told my favourite laser story for a while ...
When I was working on a high energy laser project in Germany, we had red flashing lights all along the firing range, locked gates etc ... Just about to fire the thing when someone noticed someone walking within metres of the target. A security guard had seen the flashing lights, unlocked the gate and wandered over to see what it was all about.
That's more than pain stupid, it was a potential Darwin award.
In message , Badger writes
See a doctor, they can cure that now
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