Are these lasers powerful and dangerous?

[geepondy]

I do not know much about lasers and do not like them in general as I already have compromised eyesight but at work am working on a project that contains two lasers, a 670nm wave length and a 760 nm wavelength, both 500mw in power. I have been doing some basic operational testing of the lasers. I wear the goggles and generally keep the laser cap intact when they are exposed. If I were to accidently look straight into the beam of these lasers at full power could I do serious damage to my eyes, very quickly? Are 500mw lasers considered high power?

 

[kongfuchicken]

Yeah... Extremely dangerous; basically, 100 times more than what is considered somewhat safe. Don't take off your googles! Don't even try to touch the beam...

 

[The_LED_Museum]

500mW is CDRH Class IV. This encompasses the most powerful lasers, and will cause immediate eye damage, can cause burns to skin, and set the target material on fire if it is flammable (paper, wood, dark plastic, etc.).

Never, never, ever take the laser goggles off when in the same room as the lasers if there is even a slight chance they could become energised.

 

[MaxaBaker]

/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/aaa.gif /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/str.gif /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/duh2.gif

 

[DaFiend]

[ QUOTE ]
geepondy said:
I do not know much about lasers and do not like them in general as I already have compromised eyesight but at work am working on a project that contains two lasers, a 670nm wave length and a 760 nm wavelength, both 500mw in power. I have been doing some basic operational testing of the lasers. I wear the goggles and generally keep the laser cap intact when they are exposed. If I were to accidently look straight into the beam of these lasers at full power could I do serious damage to my eyes, very quickly? Are 500mw lasers considered high power?

[/ QUOTE ]

eye--------------> *Pop*

1/2 watt makes the power sound more ominus. So what is this project?

As craig said, this project is class IV, please be very careful, never remove your goggles!

 

[geepondy]

Thanks for the heads up! I have thus far only looked at the beam at low power. I mean cross sectional, not head on. If it is on higher power levels, is it still safe to look at the beam, cross-sectional? I don't dare say too much in case it is company private info but the lasers are used to "excite" an object that is in a fluid to cause it to floresce(sp wrong). I can't think we use anywhere near the full power or the object would be disintegrated from what you say. The lasers are about the size of maybe four packs of cigarettes and run on 5V and I believe draw about 2 amps at higher power. I forget the brand now.

 

[Raccoon]

The power that you describe can easily be contained in the package you described. And even still, it is highly powerful. Extreme caution should be taken.

The wavelengths you describe, 670nm (red) and 760nm (infra-red) are nearly invisible and completely invisible to the eye. That said, just because they are difficult to SEE does not mean they cause any less retnal damage.

To put this into prospective, a typical laser pointer is regulated at 5mW regardless of its wavelength. That is 1/100th of the power you are working with. A green laser between 50mW and 200mW is a sight to behold and very very difficult to view without your eyes getting tired fast. Prolonged viewing of the reflection or even the beam is discouraged. Blindness occures in tiny ammounts, too.

Unlike a green laser though, the wavelengths you are working with (red and infra-red) will not cause your pupil to constrict when exposed to the laser, directly or indirectly. This allows even MORE of the laser light to enter your eye, causing an even accelerated deteriation of the retna.

That said, even working with "low power" (assume 100mW or so), you should be wearing your goggles and doing your work.

Don't fool around with your vision.

 

[geepondy]

Thanks again for the warning. I have extremely compromised vision as it is. In fact I may refuse to do basic bench testing unless a more controlled environment is established including some sort of measuring device to capture the output rather then the human eye. The lasers are digitally controlled thru a RS232 com port and the controlling software is imbedded within the laser. I forget the amount of digital power setting steps, I think it may be between 1 and 128 but with the red, the setting of one easily illuminutes the rubber cap and a setting of three makes it quite bright. That's as high as I've gone. With the 760nm, you can see it a little bit but you have to get it up to a setting of 20 or so before the rubber cap is easily seen to be illuminated but like mentioned, I will not be performing that step again.

I'm going to alert the other tech that works with me on this information as well. Really we should have had proper training, not just a wear the goggles and don't look into it speech. A lot of projects I've worked on lately are hurry, hurry, get it out the door and this lack of proper training and testing in a controlled environment is something that could really come back and bite the company in the *** should one of us get injured. Once the lasers are installed in the system, I think it's pretty safe as you cannot look at it directly, only a very small area of exposed cross view with the cover off.

The lasers go thru some fiber optic cable before illuminating the subject. If run near full power, can the fiber optics handle this? Like I said, I don't think we run it near full power but am unsure at exactly what level we do run it at.

 

[enLIGHTenment]

500mw of IR can blind in an instant, cause severe burns, and light fires. It's unsafe to work with lasers this powerful without proper training. If your company won't spring for proper training, report them to OSHA and refuse to work until you know what you're doing and proper safety precautions are in place.

 

[geepondy]

Found out more about the lasers today. They are class 3b and although specify a rating of 500mw on the packaging, in fact have been toned down to "only" produce a max of 150mw for our application. Also these lasers have a fiber optic coupling as fiber optics are attached and the laser is focused at the point of fiber optic entry so you can wave your hand in front of it without getting burned but of course there is still no way you want to look into it.

 

[Raccoon]

Just be careful man. You can still burn stuff, especially the fleshy tissue of your dilated eye.