Laser safety helmets tested in practice during the welder examination for hand-held laser beam welding

From August 19 to 21, another course on hand-held laser welding was held at ifw Jena.

For the first time, a single-mode laser system was used for the training alongside devices with multi-mode laser beam sources: the Lightweld XR from IPG Photonics. In addition to the various devices, the participants also had the opportunity to put different laser welding helmets from IPG Photonics or Optrel/Laservision through their paces.

Now that the certification process for the latter has been successfully completed, these helmets are expected to be available to customers from September. Three different models have already been made available to ifw Jena in advance. These are a pure laser protection helmet and two hybrid helmets. The hybrid helmets, which differ in their built-in anti-glare characteristics, are suitable for both laser beam welding and conventional welding processes. While pure laser safety helmets are more or less extended laser safety goggles, hybrid helmets are particularly impressive due to their excellent protection against glare combined with very good visibility of the pilot laser.

Both hybrid helmets are also available in a ventilated version as a standard product. Hybrid helmets should be used by people who use both hand-held laser beam welding and arc processes such as TIG welding. This is the only way to ensure that the protective effect of the helmet is provided for both variants and that the "wrong" helmet, for example a TIG helmet for hand-held laser beam welding, has not been fitted.

Both welding instructors and course participants were particularly positive about the conspicuous marking. The use of red knurled nuts makes the helmets stand out and cannot be confused with conventional welding helmets, which are not suitable for laser beam welding. Appropriate hybrid laser safety helmets should have at least protection level LB6, or even better, level LB7. These are now available with CE certification for LB7.

While the welders were able to gain experience with various protective systems and helmets, they themselves impressed with their welding results. All course participants passed both the theoretical qualification and the subsequent practical examinations.

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