Auto darkening helmets are becoming popular as it overcomes all the cons of using a traditional welding helmets. These helmets are a boon for those who are working in welding workshops. It only provides better protection but also increases your productivity, safety and comfort at work. There is a huge market and a lot of companies are coming with new and innovative models. Auto darkening welding helmets are designed to protect your eyes from rays emitted, both visible and invisible rays (infrared(IR) & ultraviolet(UV). These rays are harmful to your eyes and can be shielded using an Auto welding helmet.
In the traditional helmets the welder lifts the faceplate to see when the welder is not in operation. The operator positions the welding rig in the correct place and flips the helmet down to start the work. During this action welding rig to shift position as the screen in the traditional welding helmets are extremely dark and make it difficult for the welder to correct the position. Precision is required in welding; Auto darkening helmets overcomes the issues faced by the traditional helmets. They are highly precise, productive, efficient and comfortable to wear.
Auto darkening helmets uses lens or filters that are dark tinted pieces with IR and UV coatings on them. These coatings on the lens provide better safety to your eyes. The ability of the lens to filter rays depends on the shade numbers. People usually mistaken higher shade number to provide better protection against these rays which is false. Higher shade numbers only denotes the darkening ability of the lens. Auto darkening lens use shade numbers of #3 or #4, which is relatively easy to see through them. Once the helmet senses an arc start, the lens darkens to shade #8 to #13 in a fraction of seconds. The shade control helps to adjust the shade from #8 to #13.
The helmet consists of an electronic shutter module, The shutter module contains photocells or photo sensors (Light sensors) when it detects bright light emitted by a welding arc it darkens up. When the spark goes out and the ambient light levels come back to normal the lens are lighten and goes back to normal. Auto darkening helmets provide additional features like adjusting the delay time and sensitivity. The switching time of the helmet is just 1/110,000 of a second. It quickly shields the welder’s eyes from high intensity light. A slower reaction time will cause damage to eyes and also lead to dry scratchy sensation in the eyes known as arch flash.
Auto darkening helmets are either battery operated or using solar panels. The battery operated helps to adjust delay time and sensitivity of the lens. The delay time helps to configure the lens longevity of the lens in the dark. Longer delay time which is quite useful during very high amperages welding. Solar powered helmets have inbuilt lithium batteries so you don’t have to worry about changing the batteries.
Despite the perception that welding is a dangerous work, these products provide protection and comfort to welders.