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How I got my laser eye injury

funraniumlabs.com

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Re: How I got my laser eye injury

#21

Post by cqqxo4zV46cp »

MeteorMarc wrote: post #4
RA2lover wrote: post #2

I 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.

No. That only says something about you, not “the culture”. It’s incredibly common to laugh at the absolute absurdity of a situation. It doesn’t mean that people are making light of it. It doesn’t mean that they don’t grok how serious it is. They just react differently to you.

Re: How I got my laser eye injury

#22

Post by gus_massa »

zoky wrote: post #3

I’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…

I worked for a few weeks in a class with a custom infrared -> green laser. The teacher were very hard about glasses, how to crouch looking away from the laser table, close the door and a few more security measures. And later, I had a 5W (0.5W?) green laser at 3 yards pointed at me [1] with some optical equipment bolted to the table in the middle so there was (almost) no possibility that it hit me.

The story sounds real.

[1] If all the bolted devices in the middle magically fall down, the laser would have hit my belly, not my eyes. So it's important to crouch looking away, just in case.

Re: How I got my laser eye injury

#23

Post by rkachowski »

relaxing wrote: post #7
zoky wrote: post #3

I’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…

It's pretty crazy that the sales guy was able to connect the water cooling and power with enough hosing and cables to bring it outside, as well as know how to operate the device enough to activate it - but couldn't correctly point it _at the ground_ and burn the paint off of the street without melting through a car.

But forgetting that, what are the core safety issues described? I get the direct exposure to unprotected eyes damage, but there's discussion of infra red reflections endangering nearby children + aircraft + casus belli with the US army.

Re: How I got my laser eye injury

#25

Post by teractiveodular »

rkachowski wrote: post #23
relaxing wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

It's pretty crazy that the sales guy was able to connect the water cooling and power with enough hosing and cables to bring it outside, as well as know how to operate the device enough to activate it - but couldn't correctly point it _at the ground_ and burn the paint off of the street without melting through a car. But forgetting that, what are the core safety issues described? I get the direct exposure to unprotect…

The story says he did point it at the ground, but a) it was reflecting off the reflective paint they were aiming at and b) towards the end the laser was badly misaligned.

Re: How I got my laser eye injury

#27

Post by RealityVoid »

DannyBee wrote: post #17

So 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…

I'm dying of curiosity how cheap a cheap laser welder can be.

Re: How I got my laser eye injury

#29

Post by unkeptbarista »

relaxing wrote: post #7
zoky wrote: post #3

I’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 find this basics of this story believable. I worked at a place that manufactured IR lasers, and where the owner (the "Doctor" as we called him) set up similiar impromptu demonstrations that went awry. Thankfully no one was injured, but some random piece of equipment was damaged by the reflected beam.

Re: How I got my laser eye injury

#30

Post by ordu »

ta988 wrote: post #19
MeteorMarc wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Yeah, emotions are a positive factor for a memories forming. Add some emotions to a fact, and it will be remembered better and for longer. Some things are remembered for life without any repetition, and mostly it happens for things that trigger your emotions.
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