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Thread: Laser Resistant Lenses

  1. #1
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    Laser Resistant Lenses

    Hi everybody. Hope you're all well.

    I have a prospective patient asserting his habitual polarized specs (Shamir progressives in a high wrap Wiley X) are 'laser resistant.' He's ex-military, and I figure they're of course looking hard at this sort of thing. However, though I could easily find non-Rx safety goggles and even 'military grade' specs, I'm unaware of anything of the sort being commercially available for prescription lenses. [These guys did have a model including inserts for prescription lenses behind the goggle: https://www.thorlabs.com/newgrouppag...ctgroup_id=762 ]

    from http://www.health.mil/News/Articles/...nto-the-Future :
    LASER DANGER
    Lasers are an increasing threat to soldiers. Battlefield lasers can cause flash blindness, corneal hemorrhaging, retinal lesions and burns, and possibly permanent blindness.
    "Laser light is coherent, collimated and of a single wavelength, so that your eye focuses it to a very fine spot," Kimball said. "In this way laser light is more intense than regular white light."
    Handheld versions of lasers are readily available to anyone, anywhere. Military system-based lasers are also becoming more prevalent on the battlefield. Laser hazards can come from systems such as target designators and laser-range finders.
    Current laser protective lens technologies use dyes and/or optical films to absorb or reflect laser energy. Natick researchers are aiming to increase the survivability and mobility of warfighters in situations where lasers pose a threat and/or hazard. They are working to provide protection in low light conditions, especially protection that will work better at night. Their goal is to make laser protection part of a single, multifunctional lens system.
    After some very cursory digging, I turned up ANSI Z136.1, which covers 'Safe Use of Lasers' and delineates "classes" of laser emission according to wavelengths and associated risks of exposure. Absent some other parameters bridging that and our own ANSI Z80.1, the term "laser resistant" in spectacle retail seems like nothing but a big can of worms that I can't yet tell anyone has really combed through.

    My first guess is that my patient either got his existing lenses through service channels, or more likely is simply confused about what he has. However, before I take my weak guesses back to him, I'd be grateful if someone better illuminated can show me light....

  2. #2
    Doh! braheem24's Avatar
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    What nm and at what power in mw? would have been my question to him.

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    Master OptiBoarder rbaker's Avatar
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    This is an area where you need some professional guidance. Determine the specific laser that the customer will be exposed to and then use a product that the manufacturer recommends for that specific model of laser. Mil-Spec has absolutely nothing to do with lase protection.

    If your customer is using the laser in his workplace his employer must provide him with the proper protective eyewear.

  4. #4
    Master OptiBoarder rbaker's Avatar
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    Pulse rate or continuous?

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    Well, he does have a point. Most lasers are polarized, and as long as the polarization of the laser is not in the same plane as the lens, it will block it. If its rotated 180 degrees from the polarization plane, it will be blocked 100%. Broadband, unpolarized lasers emissions are rare outside of fibre optic systems. Of course, I generally believe that one gets what they have coming to them if thy are staring down the end of a piece of fibre optics.

  6. #6
    Manuf. Lens Surface Treatments
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    Redhot Jumper optical amplification based on the stimulated emission of electromagnetic radiation..

    Quote Originally Posted by rbaker View Post

    This is an area where you need some professional guidance. Determine the specific laser that the customer will be exposed to and then use a product that the manufacturer recommends for that specific model of laser. Mil-Spec has absolutely nothing to do with lase protection.

    If your customer is using the laser in his workplace his employer must provide him with the proper protective eyewear.

    Dick is right


    A
    laser is a device that emits light through a process of optical amplification based on the stimulated emission of electromagnetic radiation.

    Better start reading up on i, it ist the simplest way at:
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laser


  7. #7
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    LASERS do not inherently emit polarized light. If a LASER is emitting polarized light it is because for some reason a polarizing filter has been placed somewhere in the beam. Polarized sunglasses do not offer any significant protection from LASER radiation, except from a polarized source that precisely lines up along an axis 90 degrees from the polarization axis of the sunglass. A rare situation indeed.

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    Master OptiBoarder rbaker's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Lelarep View Post
    Well, he does have a point. Most lasers are polarized, and as long as the polarization of the laser is not in the same plane as the lens, it will block it. If its rotated 180 degrees from the polarization plane, it will be blocked 100%. Broadband, unpolarized lasers emissions are rare outside of fibre optic systems. Of course, I generally believe that one gets what they have coming to them if thy are staring down the end of a piece of fibre optics.
    Au contraire.

    Most of the lasers that the we come in contact with today are industrial and medical and not those found confined within fiber optics telcom systems and polarization has nothing to do with the issue at hand. Remember Goldfinger and James Bonds gonads? Ophthalmic medical offices are rife with YAG and Argon lasers used to perform capsulotomy's and trabeculoplasty procedures. Industrial lasers can cut through inches of steel. These freaking things can cause serious harm and the hazard should not be taken lightly.

    Before we give advice we must know of what we speak. The safest route is to explicitly follow the directions of the manufacturer of the laser.
    Last edited by rbaker; 05-06-2016 at 09:14 AM.

  9. #9
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    Quote Originally Posted by Lelarep View Post
    Well, he does have a point. Most lasers are polarized, and as long as the polarization of the laser is not in the same plane as the lens, it will block it. If its rotated 180 degrees from the polarization plane, it will be blocked 100%. Broadband, unpolarized lasers emissions are rare outside of fibre optic systems. Of course, I generally believe that one gets what they have coming to them if thy are staring down the end of a piece of fibre optics.
    The only time you get near 100% of blockage is when the plane of polarization of the light is very near 90 degrees from the axis of polarization in the glasses. Any other orientation of light source and/or sunglass lens transmits said light. Remember, polarized sunglasses have their axis horizontally positioned to block vertically polarized light that arises from solar radiation being reflected off a horizontal surface.

  10. #10
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    Yep 90 degrees. Not sure why I was thinking 180. I guess that's what one gets for being up all night and trying to post coherently.

  11. #11
    OptiWizard
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    Quote Originally Posted by Lelarep View Post
    Well, he does have a point. Most lasers are polarized, and as long as the polarization of the laser is not in the same plane as the lens, it will block it. If its rotated 180 degrees from the polarization plane, it will be blocked 100%. Broadband, unpolarized lasers emissions are rare outside of fibre optic systems. Of course, I generally believe that one gets what they have coming to them if thy are staring down the end of a piece of fibre optics.
    Most diode lasers are polarized, most gas lasers are not.
    And even if the laser is polarized, it won't be 100% polarized.


    Quote Originally Posted by Dr. Bill Stacy View Post
    The only time you get near 100% of blockage is when the plane of polarization of the light is very near 90 degrees from the axis of polarization in the glasses. Any other orientation of light source and/or sunglass lens transmits said light. Remember, polarized sunglasses have their axis horizontally positioned to block vertically polarized light that arises from solar radiation being reflected off a horizontal surface.
    Even if you get the polarizer axis 90 degrees to the axis of polarized light, most polarized filters only block 80-95% at normal angles of incident.


    Also, consumer polarized glasses have their axis of polarization vertical to block horizontally polarized(S) light, reflecting off horizontal surfaces.

  12. #12
    OptiWizard
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    Forgot to mention, the laser resistant claim could have been in relation to the material and it's ability to sustain exposure to laser energy without degrading structural integrity. Similar to ISO10110-13

  13. #13
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    Quote Originally Posted by rbaker View Post
    This is an area where you need some professional guidance. Determine the specific laser that the customer will be exposed to and then use a product that the manufacturer recommends for that specific model of laser. Mil-Spec has absolutely nothing to do with lase protection.

    If your customer is using the laser in his workplace his employer must provide him with the proper protective eyewear.
    +1 Clean and neat. As health care providers, I think it's important to be that to patients when this sort of thing comes up.

    Like so much of technological history, including in eyewear, the military & aerospace will push this frontier before the civilian sphere sees the ripples. God help us if we really have a need to market 'laser resistance' to the general public someday. But I could plausibly see the years ahead expand the codification of prescription safety specs to cover parameters of laser resistance alongside physical endurance properties.

    Thanks for chiming in, everybody.

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