Designer ANSI Laser Glasses/Goggles?

I'm currently exploring the purchase of two or more pairs of safety glasses, and here's the problem I couldn't resolve with my searches:

I want to start working with and building visible lasers, while my fiance' likes to go to the shooting range. I would like to buy a pair of safety glasses that can be used for both shooting ranges and lasers in the 400nm-447nm as well as the green and red lasers, which I vaguely understand to be 532nm-808nm. So as long as I'm not attacked by this guy, I want what I'm guessing are probably amber or yellow safety glasses.

But I also need them to be ANSI (steel ball) and preferably VO ballistic (steel pellet) safe, but the latter is not required.

I've also read that some plutonite oakleys are safe "up to 400nm", but I'm not sure which direction they are coming from... does that mean 0-400nm or 401nm+ ? I'm willing to go high end, but I'd prefer to only have to buy one pair for both the shooting range and laser tests, because I have to buy for two people, and I'd like to come out with my shirt intact. There's a lot of brands on here, but I don't recognize any of them because I'm more familiar with stuff like WileyX, 5.11 and Oakley.

Solves all your problems but one.

A little more serious: blocking 400-447 and 532-800 leaves only 448-531 left for any vision. Because you can't go from a high OD to a low OD in a few nanometer you'll end up with very dark blue glasses. You can't have them in orange or yellow, that would means it transmits yellow light, which has a wavelength of ~590nm. But I don't think you'll need to be protected against yellow lasers. Red lasers are around 650nm, green at 532nm, so you can have a visible gap in between.

Remember, the more of the visible light you block to keep lasers out, the less you see. Blocking all possible lasers means no light left.

ML-7 glasses come close, they aren't rated for 445nm but do block it a bit. Considering the blue "445nm" diodes are actually spread around 445nm and the ML-7 drops off fast in OD there it's not a good option. There is no rating for ballistic protection however.

These are, looking at the curve of the OD, also close, but this time red is on a slippery slope. These are also relatively dark, but that can't be prevented if you want to block so much. These are glass filters however, probably not good for shooting, but since you're asking something custom you can ask them if they can make these in plastic based glasses.

I think the best would be to contact laservision and ask if they can make custom plastic based glasses with your requirements, but they probably have only experience in making them for lasers, not shooting.

BUT THE MOST IMPORTANT: learn more about lasers before even building them! what you are looking for will be custom made and at least hunderds of dollars, and I don't know if companies can appreciate it if you ask for laser goggles without knowing anything about lasers. Safety is important, so start with getting the wavelength right, 532-808nm completely blocked is most likely not what you are looking for.

Bluefan said:

A little more serious: blocking 400-447 and 532-800 leaves only 448-531 left for any vision. Because you can't go from a high OD to a low OD in a few nanometer you'll end up with very dark blue glasses. You can't have them in orange or yellow, that would means it transmits yellow light, which has a wavelength of ~590nm. But I don't think you'll need to be protected against yellow lasers. Red lasers are around 650nm, green at 532nm, so you can have a visible gap in between.

Remember, the more of the visible light you block to keep lasers out, the less you see. Blocking all possible lasers means no light left.

ML-7 glasses come close, they aren't rated for 445nm but do block it a bit. Considering the blue "445nm" diodes are actually spread around 445nm and the ML-7 drops off fast in OD there it's not a good option. There is no rating for ballistic protection however.

These are, looking at the curve of the OD, also close, but this time red is on a slippery slope. These are also relatively dark, but that can't be prevented if you want to block so much. These are glass filters however, probably not good for shooting, but since you're asking something custom you can ask them if they can make these in plastic based glasses.

I think the best would be to contact laservision and ask if they can make custom plastic based glasses with your requirements, but they probably have only experience in making them for lasers, not shooting.

BUT THE MOST IMPORTANT: learn more about lasers before even building them! what you are looking for will be custom made and at least hunderds of dollars, and I don't know if companies can appreciate it if you ask for laser goggles without knowing anything about lasers. Safety is important, so start with getting the wavelength right, 532-808nm completely blocked is most likely not what you are looking for.

Click to expand...

I think you have a point in retrospect. I've seen multiple frequency googles before, I think on thorlabs, like the LG4 blue and LG5 pink, but I'm not sure if higher on those charts means 'stuff that gets through' or 'stuff that doesn't get through, so I figured I would ask.

Since I want to work with indigo lasers and my roommate uses green lasers, I figured I would try to kill two birds with one stone, but I'm willing to buy more than one pair of glasses for purposes of different frequencies. I would just like to have them all be ANSI ballistic compliant, that way I can get some extra use out of them, and justify the $200+ cost.

here oem gogles
ELX - YAG, Harmonics, 671nm [NR-ELX-EN207] - $140.00
i am thinking of buying these my self look at the response graph.

technically they dont fully block out the wave length just reduce it by a percentage.

I didn't see those. Those aren't rated for 650nm, but looking at the graph they're roughly OD2, not much. I prefer not to go outside the rating of the goggles, it defies the whole purpose of the rating.

i really wish i could find some that were! as in the other thread i made these are the closest i can find that are in the range they work for green atleast will need 2 pairs for what he wants. same goes for what i am looking for. yelow orange red really badly need gogles for that range.

Why would you want to block yellow lasers? Yellow lasers are VERY rare compared to the rest. Only a few members have orange or yellow lasers, and not even at high powers (besides a few of them with a large dye laser).

If you want anything rated outside of what comes standard, you'd have to ask for custom glasses, very expensive. I'd recommend to get familiar with lasers first, one wavelength at a time. What you're asking now is to be protected on a shooting range against projectiles and yellow lasers. I can't find any relation between those two, what's your plan?

Bluefan said:

Why would you want to block yellow lasers? Yellow lasers are VERY rare compared to the rest. Only a few members have orange or yellow lasers, and not even at high powers (besides a few of them with a large dye laser).

If you want anything rated outside of what comes standard, you'd have to ask for custom glasses, very expensive. I'd recommend to get familiar with lasers first, one wavelength at a time. What you're asking now is to be protected on a shooting range against projectiles and yellow lasers. I can't find any relation between those two, what's your plan?

Click to expand...

I think protection from yellow lasers is only necessary if you own one - I've seen them but they are more like a novelty color at this time, whereas green lasers are becoming the mainstream at gun shows, and its looking like 405-445nm diodes are becoming extremely popular due to blue ray technologies. So to me, green + blue protection seems optimal.

that last part was just a comment as he asked for protection from green and red lasers with a single pair. what i was saying was i was looking for the same type of thing and that i didnt find anything that would cover the whole range. yellow and orange are in the range he mentioned. and that it would be nice to have a set that covered yellow to red plus the green.

shintashi said:

I'm currently exploring the purchase of two or more pairs of safety glasses, and here's the problem I couldn't resolve with my searches:

I want to start working with and building visible lasers, while my fiance' likes to go to the shooting range. I would like to buy a pair of safety glasses that can be used for both shooting ranges and lasers in the 400nm-447nm as well as the green and red lasers, which I vaguely understand to be 532nm-808nm. So as long as I'm not attacked by this guy, I want what I'm guessing are probably amber or yellow safety glasses.

But I also need them to be ANSI (steel ball) and preferably VO ballistic (steel pellet) safe, but the latter is not required.

I've also read that some plutonite oakleys are safe "up to 400nm", but I'm not sure which direction they are coming from... does that mean 0-400nm or 401nm+ ? I'm willing to go high end, but I'd prefer to only have to buy one pair for both the shooting range and laser tests, because I have to buy for two people, and I'd like to come out with my shirt intact. There's a lot of brands on here, but I don't recognize any of them because I'm more familiar with stuff like WileyX, 5.11 and Oakley.

Click to expand...

What you ask is quasi impossible because it would be a "dark glasses" because it would not let pass virtually any visible wavelength.

The closest thing to what you ask, can these, but obviously with a VLT of only 7%


ELX - YAG, Harmonics, 671nm [NR-ELX-EN207] - $140.00


I would recommend these, are very good glasses, but for the red laser will have to buy an extra pair.


DI3 - Pump Diode, KTP, 532nm, 808nm [NR-DI3-EN207] - $147.00

are you opposed to goggles? they seem like those would last longer and be more sturdy. A japanese company called Yamamoto does some nice work. http://www.yamamoto-kogaku.co.jp/english/#products. laser vision is good to, http://www.lasersafety.com/ also there is a company but i havent dealt with yet called safety glasses USA that makes all sorts of glasses, they have certs and customer service followed up on an inquiry, http://www.safetyglassesusa.com/laser-safety-eyewear.html
First, I would think about what lasers(wavelength) you use, the frequency of use, and at what powers(mw).
Then i would think of how much light you want to be able to see(vlt), the higher vlt the more you can see of visible light. If you use 532 and 660nm the most, look for something (that protects in that range) in high vlt or 445&532, 405,445..etc.
As for ballistic test..I believe ANSI has its own ballistic category (z87.1)that gets more specific (but im not really sure bout that). Also, there is a ansi rating with most certified glasses that get tested. The metal ball bearing, if i understand, is the old way of testing now they use a custom air gun or something. I want to get a copy of ansi standards (z136.1+). Also, EU and countries that adopted the standards use CE and EN207,EN208,60825 and another one..maybe. They have impact and other tests in there but i dont know much about them. A rep at laservision has been very pleasant to talk to and answered a lot of my questions. Even followed up with some things. And they are really helpful at yamamoto to.

Blue-Fan seems pretty knowledgeable about laser safety and the standards. If you have some specific questions he could prob answer them or know where to look.

welcome to the forum Shintashi

will

I am grateful for all the advice and recommended styles. We recently went to a range with a glock 9mm and casings flew everywhere - a bit odd for me since I'm used to revolvers. I think at least one casing bounced off either my safety glasses or my hat. Meanwhile, in the booth next to us, some NRA guy and his students were shining a laser all over the place.

i'm looking for something "relatively" sleek like style 34 or the more bulky 700 (OEM), whereas style 60 (OEM) reminds me of metal shop class in high school.

F03 frames from lasersafety look nice, with the P5E01 or P5L02 look good for blue & green safety. Some of the wireframes from different sites look nice, but the usa link has radically different prices, which is a bit unnerving. I'll spend some more time checking out the Japanese site, and remain open to suggestions.