Just for giggles, who owned Spectra-Physics at the time?
How I got my laser eye injury
11–20 of 378 posts
Re: How I got my laser eye injury
#12I’m not saying it didn’t happen as described, but this really kinda reads like the “Bald eagle named Albert Einstein flew into the classroom” copypasta…
Never let facts get in the way of a good story. The build-up is great (VP's car, elementary school, military base) and the punchline is funny, but it's just a bit too perfect ("and what's above us?", cue clouds). Even the name Bob sounds like it's been chosen for comedy.
It's clearly a mostly true story that's been refined and polished over the years.
Re: How I got my laser eye injury
#13That is a heck of a cocktail story. A bit more terrifying than I expected. As the safety officer, I wonder what new policies they put into place after this.
“Do not let salesweasels anywhere near the bright shiny things” hopefully.
Re: How I got my laser eye injury
#14how do people like Bob get a job in the first place?
Re: How I got my laser eye injury
#15One thing I learnt, different glasses for different type lasers, who knew :)
Re: How I got my laser eye injury
#16One thing I learnt, different glasses for different type lasers, who knew :)
That and different glasses depending on how you use that laser... Because some lasers can do variable wavelength.
Re: How I got my laser eye injury
#17So I laser weld, and beyond my own PPE, interlocks (gun won't fire if it's not touching metal, etc), the most important part of the whole setup is laser safety curtains.
Because it's a 2500 watt laser, if i didn't have laser safety curtains , the relections/etc could very easily blind someone at a fairly long distance.
The NOHD (nominal ocular hazard distance) is something like 10km (2500 watt laser, 0.06mm spot size, divergence is very very small). The actual hazard distance is shorter, but still, kinda crazy.
(as for why i have a laser welder - i got it cheap and besides the downsides above, it is very easy to weld ~anything without much skill. A person who has never welded in their life can weld sheet metal and have it come out basically perfect in 5 minutes)
Re: How I got my laser eye injury
#18I’m not saying it didn’t happen as described, but this really kinda reads like the “Bald eagle named Albert Einstein flew into the classroom” copypasta…
The sales guy set up the entire rig on his own? And no other engineers in the lab stopped to ask what he was doing? I know some places have poor safety culture, but this is a “laser company”. Basic laser safety should be drilled into them from day 1 and every day after. When I worked in an optics lab, we had interlocks on the doors that switched on with the power supply running the experiment and a sign outside indic…
I have seen a drunk employee wrestling with a moving industrial robotic arm trying to "fix it" after having disabled the numerous safeties with screwdrivers. This was at a major car manufacturer plant. Do not underestimate the horrible situations people can put themselves in.
Re: How I got my laser eye injury
#19I wonder what happened to literally everyone else present at this situation. That's beyond "Yikes!" territory.
Yes, I also dislike the culture in which this can be called a funny story. Such culture will cause more incidents. Worked in a laser lab for 5 years without incident in a time when eye safety goggles were not used for visible light.
Sometimes a funny story is one that helps you remember about safety.
Re: How I got my laser eye injury
#20The laser should've been mounted on a shark.