At what wattage will a green laser burn or damage sking

[jkguest]

I was wondering what wattage will a green laser burn or damage skin? At what wattage will you feel the heat? Thanks

Edit: Sorry about the typo inthe title. I obviously meant skin not sking.

 

[Laser Smith]

At 100W you would definitely feel it. Same with 500W. Might blast your arm off though
:lasergun:

 

[jkguest]

At 100W you would definitely feel it. Same with 500W. Might blast your arm off though
:lasergun:

If you ment W not mW then you definatly would feel it. Cut right through you if it was 500W. Haha

 

[InfinitusEquitas]

Focused to burn, you will feel it starting at about 50-60mW.

Focused to infinity it depends on distance, divergence and beam diameter. Safe to say at over 150mW, you will feel it up close.

 

[jeffreythe00]

Just out of curiosity I can feel my 130mw green laser burn my skin after about 1-2 seconds of exposure. It feels like a bee sting. So you are quick to remove any burning body part from it.

 

[Laser Smith]

No I meant W. You didn't ask what is the lowest mW that will burn, you asked what wattage will burn. Well I think 100 or 500W will definitely burn :na:

 

[Benm]

Its mostly a matter of power density. I'd say you can feel it at about 10mW/mm2, when aimed at a moderately sensitive part of skin, like the top of your hand. This figure is for white skin.

So if you have a 100 mW green laser that has a beam diameter of 2 to 3 milimiters, you can feel it 'sting' your skin quite easily. Focussed to a pinprick, it will probably also be possible to feel something like 20 mW.

Determining when damage occurs is a bit more diffucult. I'm sure a 100 mW laser focussed to a 2 mm diameter dot would eventually cause a burn, but most people tend to get their fingers out of harms way before that happens.

I suppose there would be something analog to the blink-reflex eye safe power levels - it takes some time for a reflex to move a hand out of an unpleasant situation. The reflex speed varies between people, but its usually several hundred milliseconds.

 

[jkguest]

Its mostly a matter of power density. I'd say you can feel it at about 10mW/mm2, when aimed at a moderately sensitive part of skin, like the top of your hand. This figure is for white skin.

So if you have a 100 mW green laser that has a beam diameter of 2 to 3 milimiters, you can feel it 'sting' your skin quite easily. Focussed to a pinprick, it will probably also be possible to feel something like 20 mW.

Determining when damage occurs is a bit more diffucult. I'm sure a 100 mW laser focussed to a 2 mm diameter dot would eventually cause a burn, but most people tend to get their fingers out of harms way before that happens.

I suppose there would be something analog to the blink-reflex eye safe power levels - it takes some time for a reflex to move a hand out of an unpleasant situation. The reflex speed varies between people, but its usually several hundred milliseconds.

Thank you a lot. You got some repuation for that