LASER SAFETY In association with
Laser safety practices and equipment
www.lasersystemseurope.com/technologies/safety
Neal Croxford highlights some of the main hazards of industrial laser systems
The reduction in cost of low- to medium-power industrial lasers has led to a significant increase in their use and ownership. However, understanding the safety aspects of their use has not kept pace with this proliferation. Most industrial lasers are no
more or less hazardous than any other machine tool found in a typical workshop and can be used perfectly safely if their hazards are known, understood and correctly controlled. However, while the hazards of using, say, a lathe have been highlighted from early days at school or college, familiarity with industrial lasers is much
less common. Even among teachers and lecturers, the potential hazard of a large piece of spinning metal is far more obvious than those associated with a laser system.
What are the hazards of a laser system? The type of hazard presented by a laser system depends on its power and wavelength. The greatest hazard is normally to the eyes, due to their greater sensitivity to light compared with skin. The two most common types of industrial laser are fibre and CO2
. These lasers have
wavelengths of around 1μm and 10μm respectively (legacy YAG and vanadate lasers have wavelengths very similar to fibre lasers). Both of these wavelengths are in the infrared and so it is not possible to see them with the naked eye. This makes them potentially more dangerous than even the much
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lower-power laser pointers, because it is not possible to see the light or to take any avoiding action.
Figure 1: Anatomy of the human eye
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The fundamental quality that distinguishes lasers from other sources of light is their ability to be focused to very small spots and be collected into beams that expand (diverge) very little over large distances. This means the intensity of light can still be harmful at significant
distances from the source of light. Fibre lasers present one of the highest hazards of any laser because the light is transmitted through the cornea and lens at the front of the eye and through the vitreous liquid that fills the eyeball, and so gets all the way to the back of the eye to the light sensors, known as the retina (see Figure 1). The cornea and the lens both focus
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