Safety class of 5mW 650nm line laser module?

[Chinaski]

Hi,

I would appreciate some advice please. I'm a complete laser novice but I'm developing a product that uses a line laser to project a beam onto a photodiode - if something passes through the beam between the source and detector, it triggers an event.

This product will be for the consumer market, so I want it to be as low a class as possible - I don't want someone's kid being damaged by it if they start playing around with it!

I have a couple of questions..

1) Will a class 2 laser be suitable for my device (safety wise, given the info above) or should I be strictly keeping it class 1?

2) For class 2, I understand (from searching this website) that class 2 must be <1mW, but would a line module at 5mW be class 2 also, given the output is being spread out into a line? For example this: 650nm 5mW Mini Line 9x22mm Laser Module, AixiZ

3) How are these things assessed? are there people / companies who offer classification of products as a service.

and lastly

4) am I legally allowed to sell a product with a class 2 laser in the UK? rest of the world?



Many thanks,
Duncan.

 

[magmabeam]

by the sounds of things i'm not sure if you could design that product and have the laser as class 1, as class 1's are usually completely enclosed in something

 

[Chinaski]

by the sounds of things i'm not sure if you could design that product and have the laser as class 1, as class 1's are usually completely enclosed in something

Are preferred laser pointers not all class 1?

 

[Benm]

Virtually all laser pointers are class 2 or higher.

To be class 1, the output light cannot exceed 1 mW/cm2, so for a 1 mW laser pointer to be in class one the beam would have to be at least 1 cm2 wide. For a pointer that's not very practical, but for a line generating laser it might be.

I guess class 2 is no problem though, most hardware stores sell laser levels that are <1 mW, but have a beam only 2 mm diameter or so if you remove the line generator (which is possible for the user since you can take it out to rotate it 90 degrees).