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  • Author Author: dwinhold
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Laser safety is so important!!

dwinhold

Hello everyone,

 

I just wanted to show how laser safety is so important. I am bad for this myself as I was educated the old school way, safety is secondary. I have recently purchased a laser CNC. I have been following all safety procedures with its opperation. This morning I took pictures while running a program and realized how important safety glasses are. I couldn't imagine how much damage I would have done to my eyes in seconds without them. I posted photos of the laser with and without the safety filter glasses.

 

Without the filter:

 

image

 

image

 

image

 

With the filter:

 

image

 

image

 

And the ceiling reflection above the CNC:

 

image

 

This is a 5.5 watt laser. The temperature of the laser at full power is 842 degrees C.

 

Be safe everyone

 

Dale Winhold

  • I worked with high power lasers briefly when studying at University and I had to have an eye check before using it so that any damage could be identified. I was blurry eyed from the drops used to relax the pupil for quite a while. It put me right off using them. That was over forty years ago. Now laser cutters are common place and I did briefly get involved with them before retiring. I think the 5W ones must be just for engraving as we had 50W and higher ones, all in a big box which only worked when the lid was down. I still didn't like being around them when they were on.

     

    Dubbie

  • Great pickup, but I cannot overstress the need for eye safety using lasers.

    You only have two, treat them well.

     

    When I worked in the laser lab we had to do annual eye exams to make sure none of us suffered any ill effects from our work.

     

    I still remember the day we had a major come down from his lab with a V shaped burn into his forehead. He was trying to align his IR laser while it was on and accidentally, or so we were told, moved his head into the path of the beam. He finally felt his skin burning and then pulled his head back, hence the V shape.

     

    As you can see from the photographs, a laser cutter puts out a lot of reflected energy off cutting surfaces. It takes a very small glint to do serious damage to an unprotected eyeball.

     

    So be very careful with lasers.

     

    DAB

  • in reply to shabaz

    When I took a laser cutting class at the community college we were told that we needed to stay in close proximity to the unit to mitigate possible fires as we were cutting wood.  I think most higher power commercial units all have safety enclosures and active ventilation.  I guess soon enough they will also have fire extinguishers integrated.  Maybe halon would work in this application.

  • Hi Dale,

     

    Congrats on the purchase! Is there a way to prevent operation until the enclosure is sealed? I'm not sure safety glasses are sufficient (I'm not knowledgeable in this area).

    What I do remember, at uni, when we had to use a laser in an experiment (admittedly it was a lot more powerful, but even 5W is a lot as you say), the operator actually had a caged part of the room, so we had to walk out, and shut the door, and then the controls would be operated (i.e. the controls were on the other side of the door). I'm thinking maybe a CCTV setup (low-cost composite camera, and a car TFT display) could be used to remotely view it all.