Violet 100mW Laser

How long would you guys estimate it to take for a 100mW laser being shone directly into someones eye before it does damage, in addition, could you be damaged off of opaque surfaces?, transparent?, translucent?, reflective?

Instant damage in one hit. I've seen it first hand.

The other stuff I don't know, I'm still new like you

The risk is immediate. The 5 mW 'safe' limit is only because the blink reflex will shut your eye before damage is done. So the anwer here would be 20 times faster then you can close your eye, which equates to something in the order of 10 miliseconds.

Obviously there is a rather large safety margin between what is generally considered safe, and what actually does damage every time it happens. But crossing that margin 20 fold would surely be a true hazard.

Non-reflective, matte, surfaces would be quite safe, as they re-radiate the laser energie as if they were point sources. At any distances that greatly diminishes the risk.

Reflective (or glossy) surfaces can be as bad as a direct hit if they are mirrors. A bouce off a glass pane is normally about 4% at a normal angle, but much more at shallow angles, so still possibly very dangerous.

Blu-ray warrants extra caution: A beam that has enough energy to do serious damage does not appear very bright, and can be slower in triggering blink reflex, just because 405 nm is borderline visible light. 10 mW of 405 is just a very dull spot on a non-fluorescent surface, but at least as dangerous as a rather blinding 10 mW of 532.

Yeah, I got a blind spot that lasted weeks with a 30mw greenie, 100mw of violet is very dangerous

Thanks for the information

By the time you realize that the laser has hit your eye...it is far too late.

-Mike

Ive taken two direct hits by my 100mw bluray and besides me eye hurting for a few minutes no damage was done.

tell me if I am wrong guys, as I'm very new. If your eye hurt from getting hit by the 100mw br then the damage is already done whether you realize it or not. The mind is an amazing tool at hiding blind spots. Probably should get yourself checked up.

Also, I wonder if "arc-eye" is a symptom of br hits like when i decided I would try look at my mig welder for "just a little bit".... no fun.

Use extreme caution, you only get eyes once, at least for each eye. -Glenn

cavok84 said:

Also, I wonder if "arc-eye" is a symptom of br hits like when i decided I would try look at my mig welder for "just a little bit".... no fun.

Click to expand...

Yeah I got that welding once. Feels like sand is pouring in your eyes for hours.

I don't think you will get the same reaction because laser light is a small concentrated beam unlike the flash of the arc. Maybe a long range hit might give you something like that.

These "arc-eyes" are an inflammation of the eye, a conjunctivitis. I got one once as a youngster after discovering how to light an electric arc with my lab power supply... a thoroughly unpleasant experience that lasted a couple of days.

I too don't think you can get this with a BR laser, the intensities and exposure durations are too short. The immediate, thermal damage to the retina from the focused beam is an incomparably greater danger.