Laser Safety Glasses

August 6, 2007 at 3:08 pm | | everyday science, lab safety

Always the skeptic, I decided to put my new pair of laser safety glasses to the test.

I was actually a little surprised with the results. Since we have doubled YAG (532nm), YLF (527nm), and VO4 (535nm), l figured the glasses should work work for each since they are rated OD>5 for 190 – 534. But as you can see, at 535, the OD is already down to only 3.5. That’s should still be enough (esp. at only 5W), but I guess you really do have to yield to their manufacturer warnings not to exceed the specified wavelengths. I was too lazy to use the nice CARY, so I can’t comment on their performance in the NIR.

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  1. Pitstops along the bloggenbahn (Lamentations on Chemistry)  – Aug 6, 2007  – Lamentations on Chemistry Laser Safety Glasses (Everyday Scientist)  – Aug 6, 2007  – Everyday Scientist A Cut In My Finger (hdreioplus.de)  – Aug 6, 2007  – hdreioplus.de DNA Testing for Adoptees (Eye on DNA)  – Aug 6, 2007  – Eye on DNA

    Pingback by The Chemical blogspace Blog — November 30, -0001 #

  2. I’m a little confused.

    This graph supposed to represent an OD>5 from about 190-534 nm, right? Then what’s going on? Surely, this plot does not show an OD >5 for both 425 and 475 nm.

    Comment by Slow Chemist — August 6, 2007 #

  3. I think when they say 190-534 nm, they actually mean at each of the YAG harmonics from 190-534 nm. I agree, though, that the terminology is bad. Particularly in the world of safety, having an implied parlance is usually a recipe for bad things to happen.

    Comment by kendall — August 6, 2007 #

  4. whoa! that’s not cool. i would interpret “OD>5 190-534nm” to mean that the OD is greater than 5 from 190 to 534 nm. who wouldn’t? you should send this link to the manufacturer and let them explain!

    Comment by sam — August 6, 2007 #

  5. With my 5W supercontinuum laser I just go vista al naturale.

    Comment by joel — August 7, 2007 #

  6. all you guys are wimps: i don’t even wear pants when aligning my IR lasers. (i like the warming feeling.)

    Comment by sam — August 7, 2007 #

  7. @Sam: I suppose pants would be cumbersome if you had to shit yourself during an important experiment, huh?

    Comment by joel — August 9, 2007 #

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