Just got my IR2 Laser from Sculpfun delivered. I ordered separately OD6+ CE Red Infrared IR Laser Safety Protective Goggles 600nm-1100nm 1064nm as no safety eyewear was provided. I know it’s “only” 2w, but I have also only 2 eyes…
However somewhere I read that you wouldn’t need any eye protection…
I have the laser in an enclosure with laser safety glass (450nm).
A casual Amazon search suggests none of the similar goggles have the required regulatory markings embossed / molded / engraved on their lenses. If your goggles do not have those markings, then they are junk.
As you point out, you have two eyes, so if you keep one closed at all times, you’ll be fine. As the sign says, Do not stare into laser beam with remaining eye.
The problem with IR lasers is that their invisible light does not trigger your blink reflex. As a result, you have no warning the beam has escaped the enclosure and will not blink when it shines in your eye.
On the upside, IR light does not penetrate very far beyond the cornea, so it might not burn out the fovea: you’d be just a pair of corneal transplants away from normal vision again.
That applies to anybody else in the same room with you while the laser is operating. Children? Friends? Neighbors?
It’s all about risk management. How lucky do you feel today?
Preferably an enclosure with no transparent panels and a camera if You have to see what’s happening.
But if there have to be transparent panels for some reason, extra protection is never a bad thing.
This is what Xtool says:
3. No light shield is provided on the laser module. Will it hurt my eyes when it is working?
The laser beams emitted by the 1064nm infrared laser module are infrared light, which is invisible and therefore will not hurt your eyes.
Note: You can wear goggles to protect your eyes from damage
If it won’t hurt my eyes, why should I need goggles to protect my eyes???
Part of the training I got before starting a project using relatively low-power lasers was a video showing an IR laser frying a rabbit’s cornea. I am, as a result, spring-loaded to assume the worst possible outcome involving coherent light.
Visible lasers can destroy your retina. IR lasers can destroy your cornea and maybe your lens. Whether they will do so under specific circumstances makes no difference to me.
Other folks obviously have different risk assessments.
Given a powerful motivation to not mention possible eye damage, they lie.
It’s that simple.
Plenty of people across the US have discovered they do not see as well this week as they did last week. In addition to the ones who just stared at near-totality with bare eyes, not all of those “eclipse glasses” met their advertised optical densities:
A 1064nM IR laser will pass completely through this, like it’s not there… If you can’t engrave it directly, it’s not going to be any good as safety glass protection.
Saying that, I’ve seen Youtube video of people using them with no glasses, include a rust removing fiber, Raycus and jpt sources and a hand held nozzle… no glasses…
This is a 2kW fiber laser… notice no eye protection… I think you should always were eye protection, even if it’s from flying sparks or other debris.
And no fume protection. Those surgical masks aren’t much good against anything like that.
Most of the time, nothing bad happens and you get away with doing it. Once in a while, you lose an eye. Maybe, years later, you start coughing up a lung.
I’m sure these people aren’t going home blind - I also doubt they are so stupid to keep sequencing people in that can see for the blind people going out…
I see the same thing in middle eastern machine shops with heavy equipment and material… all wearing open foot sandals…
That Xtool verbiage is SCREAMING for a lawsuit. Holy cow. Not just wrong, but HORRIBLY wrong. Somebody gonna get blinded for SURE. They’ll own Xtool, but they’ll still be blind.
