Hazardous ultraviolet and blue-light emissions of CO2 laser beam welding

Schulmeister, Karl; Schmitzer, C.; Duftschmid, K.E.; Liedl, Gerhard; Schröder, K.; Brusl, Helmut; Winker, N.

doi:10.2351/1.5056404

Cited by 2 publications

(1 citation statement)

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“…Non-ionizing radiation, which is produced in large amounts by welding arcs, may induce photophthalmia, keratoconjunctivitis, and cataracts. Retinal injuries resulting from exposure to welding arcs have been reported (Magnavita 2002;Kozleowski 2001;Mariutti and Matzeu 1988;Schulmeister et al 1997;Chou and Cullen 1996;Elsner and Hassam 1996). To evaluate the hazard associated with optical exposure to NIR during welding processes, the spectral irradiance should be measured and weighted in terms of biological effectiveness.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 93%

Exposure Assessment of Aluminum Arc Welding Radiation

Peng¹,

Lan²,

Juang³

et al. 2007

Health Physics

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The purpose of this study is to evaluate the non-ionizing radiation (NIR) exposure, especially optical radiation levels, and potential health hazard from aluminum arc welding processes based on the American Conference of Governmental Industrial Hygienists (ACGIH) method. The irradiance from the optical radiation emissions can be calculated with various biological effective parameters [i.e., S(lambda), B(lambda), R(lambda)] for NIR hazard assessments. The aluminum arc welding processing scatters bright light with NIR emission including ultraviolet radiation (UVR), visible, and infrared spectra. The UVR effective irradiance (Eeff) has a mean value of 1,100 microW cm at 100 cm distance from the arc spot. The maximum allowance time (tmax) is 2.79 s according to the ACGIH guideline. Blue-light hazard effective irradiance (EBlue) has a mean value of 1840 microW cm (300-700 nm) at 100 cm with a tmax of 5.45 s exposure allowance. Retinal thermal hazard effective calculation shows mean values of 320 mW cm(-2) sr(-1) and 25.4 mW (cm-2) (380-875 nm) for LRetina (spectral radiance) and ERetina (spectral irradiance), respectively. From this study, the NIR measurement from welding optical radiation emissions has been established to evaluate separate types of hazards to the eye and skin simultaneously. The NIR exposure assessment can be applied to other optical emissions from industrial sources. The data from welding assessment strongly suggest employees involved in aluminum welding processing must be fitted with appropriate personal protection devices such as masks and gloves to prevent serious injuries of the skin and eyes upon intense optical exposure.

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