A welding helmet is a protective gear for any welder. With a great variety and choices available in the market it is difficult to choose a correct helmet. Traditional welding helmets are heavy mask which offer minimal protection and minimum comfort. Auto darkening helmets are the best alternative for the old school welding helmets. The shortcomings of the traditional welding helmets are overcome by the auto darkening helmets. A question arises whether auto darkening helmets are the best one that are available in the market. The answer is big yes, Auto darkening helmets are way ahead and sophisticated piece of equipment which protects all the hazards from welding. Auto darkening helmets are the new breed of advance technology welding helmets which is equipped with features which you will not find in any ordinary helmets. Will using auto darkening welding helmets damage your vision? The answer is definitely no. In fact they provide additional protection and better comfort. Let us now see how they are superior to any other protective gear that is available for welding.
Auto darkening helmets are fitted with a screen or a shade which is a LCD. The LCD is the sealed liquid crystal. The LCD screen is coated with protective coatings in order to save the eyes from dangerous radiations which are emitted. The radiations are usually IR and UV rays. In case of improper protection of the welder it can lead to cataract or sight-hand coordination. Lack of proper protective gear can lead to vision damage and can also lead to blindness. Prolonged exposure to bright light can lead to serious long term illness. Another common health problem is arc eye or welders flash when the welder is exposed to UV radiation it can lead to this hazard. The symptoms include turning of eyes red, irritation, watering and pains. It can lead to becoming sensitive to light.There is lot of customization possible with auto-darkening helmets. A variety of features like shade controls, sensitivity controls and delay controls greatly help the welder to overcome these health hazards. An auto darkening helmet doesn’t damage your vision in any way. In fact they protect the eyes to a great extent.
Shade controls, the shades of the auto darkening helmets are useful to adjust the shade of the lens in the welding helmets. The fixed shades range from #3 to #4 in normal state. When an arc light is struck they automatically switch to higher shade number #9 to #13 which darkens the shade to protect the eyes.
Sensitivity controls is used to control the amount of light that needs to impact the screen before the screen turns dark. In an external environment it can greatly help the welder adjusting the sensitivity controls can minimize the influence the impact of external light on the shades. Delay controls are to fix the time that the lens stay dark. High amperage welding needs higher delay controls. The delay control settings can be adjusted as per the needs of the welder.
Hence it is clear that auto darkening helmets in no way damage your vision rather they help you to work more effectively and efficiently. They improve the quality of work and comfort at work. Hence the perception about auto darkening helmets causing damage to the eyes is very false.
