Testing Laser Safety Glasses

[WizardG]

The projector in your clock is using a blue LED, not a laser. If you really want to test your safety glasses you're going to need to invest in a laser power meter or find a friend on the forum that will test your glasses for you.

 

[Unown (WILD)]

Oh I know I was just pointing out why you couldn't determine the effectiveness of the goggles by that means

 

[Sowee7]

I thought that the forum consensus was 'Eagle Pair'...???

I’ve had a really bad experience with my eagle pair laser glasses, they don’t block the wavelengths advertised. my glasses were supposed to block 190-540 + 800-1700 but they can’t even block a tested 5mw 532nm dpss, and they let 5mw in from a 100mw 532nm laser, and they are rated OD6

 

[bostjan]

The most certain way to test them, and this only works once, is to wear them whilst doing your experiments. If you permanently go blind, then you know 100% for sure that the glasses didn't work.

There are lots of other much much safer ways to test, but no test is 100% accurate. I'd recommend using an LPM and using the actual laser source you are using, but again, if you don't have good glasses to use that source, it sort of leaves you in a pickle.

If you have a lower power laser light source that you know for sure is the same wavelength, you could shine it on a neutral wall and then test whether you can see the reflected dot with the glasses on. If so, then odds are high that the glasses won't protect you. There is a chance that the wall could be fluorescent at that wavelength, though, but, if it is, there is also a chance that other test objects might do the same and provide another form of optical hazard. But anyway, assuming that you cannot see the light reflected off of the wall from a <5mW source, you could use one pair of the glasses to test the other pair with the LPM and intended source. There'd still be a risk, but you are mitigating your risk. I mean, there is always some danger when using a high powered laser, even if you wear the best glasses, since the glasses could break or fall of your head or light could come in through a gap or you could trip and fall down and land on a pile of knives, who knows. The point of safety glasses is not to offer you 100% protection from danger, it is to mitigate the danger the best way possible.

 

[AquaticHarpy]

If youre too broke to play with green lasers like me,

Eagle Pair® 190-470nm & 660-760nm Laser Safety Goggles

Update: Based on our testing with the recently-introduced high-power 635nm red diodes, these goggles appear to have an OD of approximately 2.5 at the 635nm wavelength. Eagle Pair brand protective laser safety goggles for combined 190-470nm & 660-760nm wavelengths. These goggles have 40% visible...

www.survivallaser.com

Get these, they work spectacularly, I have the same ones. I play mostly with 405-450 nm lasers, 50w+. They also protect me from my 636 arrays very well. So stay in the wavelengths, dont play with greens and these are some of the best you can get <3

 

[Mathewe]

The most certain way to test them, and this only works once, is to wear them whilst doing your experiments. If you permanently go blind, then you know 100% for sure that the glasses didn't work.

There are lots of other much much safer ways to test, but no test is 100% accurate. I'd recommend using an LPM and using the actual laser source you are using, but again, if you don't have good glasses to use that source, it sort of leaves you in a pickle.

If you have a lower power laser light source that you know for sure is the same wavelength, you could shine it on a neutral wall and then test whether you can see the reflected dot with the glasses on. If so, then odds are high that the glasses won't protect you. There is a chance that the wall could be fluorescent at that wavelength, though, but, if it is, there is also a chance that other test objects might do the same and provide another form of optical hazard. But anyway, assuming that you cannot see the light reflected off of the wall from a <5mW source, you could use one pair of the glasses to test the other pair with the LPM and intended source. There'd still be a risk, but you are mitigating your risk. I mean, there is always some danger when using a high powered laser, even if you wear the best glasses, since the glasses could break or fall of your head or light could come in through a gap or you could trip and fall down and land on a pile of knives, who knows. The point of safety glasses is not to offer you 100% protection from danger, it is to mitigate the danger the best way possible.

This is the 'BEST' response that I have so far read! "I tip my hat to you, bostjan!" Very informative and 'STRAIGHT' to the point! This is 'EXACTLY' what I've been looking for! I can easily relate to your response 110%. The line of work that I am in (not laser related) is quite dangerous and requires considerable safety precautions and training, however. Just as you stated, in your post... accidents still happen, injuries occur, and the best laid plans in safety are not always guaranteed. The best practices implemented for safety are simply measures designed to help 'mitigate' the danger and potential injuries that can occur!

Prior to reading 'your' post, I was under the impression that some sources of retail safety eye protection were really good, while others were not so good. I was trying to sort that out in order to insure that the glasses I chose to wear were truly safe as advertised. It didn't take long for me to feel like I was chasing a 'Red-Herring' in pursuit of what was truly safe. Now that I'm reading that 'nothing' is 100% safe, in laser safety glasses, I can finally get my head around the safety thing and also know how to better protect myself from the 'reality' of it all!
Huge thanks for making things clear to me!!!

 

[Psyrex]

This is the 'BEST' response that I have so far read! "I tip my hat to you, bostjan!" Very informative and 'STRAIGHT' to the point! This is 'EXACTLY' what I've been looking for! I can easily relate to your response 110%. The line of work that I am in (not laser related) is quite dangerous and requires considerable safety precautions and training, however. Just as you stated, in your post... accidents still happen, injuries occur, and the best laid plans in safety are not always guaranteed. The best practices implemented for safety are simply measures designed to help 'mitigate' the danger and potential injuries that can occur!

Prior to reading 'your' post, I was under the impression that some sources of retail safety eye protection were really good, while others were not so good. I was trying to sort that out in order to insure that the glasses I chose to wear were truly safe as advertised. It didn't take long for me to feel like I was chasing a 'Red-Herring' in pursuit of what was truly safe. Now that I'm reading that 'nothing' is 100% safe, in laser safety glasses, I can finally get my head around the safety thing and also know how to better protect myself from the 'reality' of it all!
Huge thanks for making things clear to me!!!

I feel the same, as a newbie I would like a definitive answer as it’s about safety but it seems there is no one set of safety goggles that does it all. Is there a manufacturer that’s trusted by most here ?

 

[julianthedragon]

I feel the same, as a newbie I would like a definitive answer as it’s about safety but it seems there is no one set of safety goggles that does it all. Is there a manufacturer that’s trusted by most here ?

Laserglow is known to be safe, and no safety goggles are going to do it all because they work by blocking the range of light the laser is in. If they did it all they would just be opaque black sunglasses. But there are some that cover a large range like all visible blue light for example.

side note - if you want to make sure the goggles you choose have a good OD for the wavelength of your laser you can contact laserglow and ask for a graph of OD vs wavelength for their goggles

 

[Psyrex]

Laserglow is known to be safe, and no safety goggles are going to do it all because they work by blocking the range of light the laser is in. If they did it all they would just be opaque black sunglasses. But there are some that cover a large range like all visible blue light for example.

side note - if you want to make sure the goggles you choose have a good OD for the wavelength of your laser you can contact laserglow and ask for a graph of OD vs wavelength for their goggles

Thanks fir the tip about Laser glow, there’s a company in Australia called lasersafetyglasses.com.au and some of their glasses cost over $300 with OD 7. But are they any good or just profitable ?
I’m looking at research into a wide spectrum so is there a set of glasses I need ? How many sensible glasses do you use or should I buy ?
Thanks fir your reply !

 

[julianthedragon]

I’m looking at research into a wide spectrum so is there a set of glasses I need ? How many sensible glasses do you use or should I buy ?

It really depends what wavelengths of powerful lasers you're going to be around. Without knowing that it's hard to tell you, but you should find the most convenient option for you. If you need to cover all the visible wavelengths, there are endless possibilities. You could order a bunch of glasses that all cover a narrow band of frequency or you could order 2-3 pairs with wider ranges.

Here's a useful website: https://noirlaser.com/
You can search by wavelength or application, filter for CE certified glasses (which you want), and view detailed graphs for every filter to find exactly what you're looking for

 

[gazer101]

The only 100% guaranteed safe laser goggles that block all wavelengths but allow u to still see are VR goggles (what I used to use). Just make sure the camera is hot-swappable in case it gets blinded!

 

[Psyrex]

Thanks for your replies guys.
My area of research involves testing a wide spectrum of frequencies so I might contact a company and ask them to put together a set of glasses that cover a wide range.

 

[Light superglue]

My 2 cents into this discussion:

The safety goggles are made to protect the eyes from reflected light when looking at the laser spot on a clear surface.
No one should ever try looking into the reflected or even worse direct beam even when wearing best safety googles ever. Because if they stop energy, they can heat, melt and burn through very quickly! Yes, one might have 1-2 seconds to turn away, but any laser burns through plastic of protective googles exactly like it burns through any black plastic.

About cheap and reasonably safe way to evaluate the quality against a certain laser: once I compared 100usd ones with the 10usd ones simply by making pictures of the spot on the white wall with mobile phone camera - you can see the difference!
Even if both googles looked quite similar from the first glance.