I would like to add that I use 7or 8 for mig, now a lot of times I'm using less than 90 amps to justify. Other than that, get on with your life and worry about losing weight and eating better and doing productive and creative things in the shop. Even this (which is very uncomfortable) is a superficial UV burn and does not add significantly to the long term damage (unless you do it a lot.)
You can also get a flash burn from the UV if you don't have a helmet on the the guy next to you lights up and you're dumb enough to look at the arc for a while. Long term exposure to bright lights does cause some damage, so take your anti-oxidants and wear sunglasses and don't be silly with your welding helmet settings. If you're not uncomfortable from the brightness of the visible light, you're fine. This is passive protection that has nothing to do with how dark the lens is or how fast the lens changes.Īs several previous posts suggest, how dark you set it (within broad limits) is a personal preference. They all stopped the UV to the 99+ % range. We have a UV transmission meter, and I have tested several welding helmets, including a HF helmet I bought 6 or 7 years ago. Your welding helmet could be defective, blah blah blah. Less than a millisecond is not perceivable by the human eye and will provide the most comfort. However, for maximum comfort, look for a high quality helmet that has a response darkening time of 4/10ths of a millisecond. Since high-quality auto-darkening helmets provide UV and IR protection even when the helmet is not activated, you are always protected.
Unprotected from this light, both eye damage and discomfort can occur. Q: Auto-darkening helmets don't darken until the welding arc is struck - will this "split second" damage my eyes?Ī: Welding arcs emit both IR and UV wavelengths of light. The number just denotes the amount of darkness provided by that particular lens and should be used by operators as a guide to select the one that is most comfortable and yet provides good visibility for the particular application. But in reality, all well-constructed quality welding lenses, have a screen that filters out 100 percent of the harmful ultraviolet (UV) and infrared (IR) wavelengths and provides protection to the eyes. A: Many people mistakenly think that the lens shade number corresponds to the amount of protection that is provided to the eyes and hence the higher the number, the better the protection.