Eye protection when using Nuarc plate burner?

[Pasto]

I finally found, and bought, a Nuarc plate burner for carbon printing. It's the newer model that uses a metal halide light source. The thing is EXTREMELY bright, and I'm wondering if it's safer to use some eye protection when exposing?? I put on sunglasses now, but wonder about the wavelength of the light emitted and whether the sunglasses are sufficient protection...Thanks...

 

[pentaxuser]

I assume that Nuarc is the maker and/or there is a maker of this plate. If so I'd ask the maker or try and obtain a copy of the instructions which I assume you don't have.

pentaxuser

 

[Tom1956]

If it's the flip-over type, just don't look down in it. Yes, they're all bright.

 

[jovo]

My wife uses a 1000 Watt Nuarc unit for polymer photogravure. She made an opaque vinyl sheet that hangs around the thing when it's on and wears very dark glasses as well. Were it not for the opaque vinyl, I think a welder's mask or goggles would be sufficient for protection, but nothing less than that.

 

[Dr Croubie]

I'm sure you could grab some UV and ND10,000 filters, and some pipe-cleaners, and hack yourself a very nice-looking pair of goggles without needing to buy a welder's mask...

There used to be a sign up in the woodworking shop at my high school "noise loud enough to annoy, given time will destroy". The same is probably true of light, if it hurts to look at it, it ain't good for you...

 

[jovo]

I checked on line for welder's goggles. These look terrific, and they're CHEAP!!!

http://www.amazon.com/s/?ie=UTF8&keywords=welders+goggles&tag=mh0b-20&index=aps&hvadid=1470732044&ref=pd_sl_2b0qva2m38_e

 

[Tom1956]

And here all this time I thought us printers died of misery and poverty, but any eyesight problems from the platemaker I never heard of.

 

[DREW WILEY]

I've never heard of anyone before who DIDN'T know these kinds of lights are dangerous to look at! This is kinda common sense stuff, just like not putting you hand on a lit stove burner. Even my cats can figure that kind of thing out without reading an Owner's Manual.

 

[Klainmeister]

Hmmm, maybe I should use some protection with mine then too. I don't really look at it though and go for stroll while printing.

 

[polyglot]

Your eyes need goggles, but that won't prevent sunburn on the rest of you! Keep it properly closed and/or shielded with totally opaque (cardboard/metal/whatever) material.

 

[Pasto]

I just want to clarify, especially for those with very smart cats , I do not place my head on the vacuum glass and point my eyes into the light source! Given that the spectrum of these lights is very close to daylight it is not unreasonable to think that they may not be dangerous to be exposed to (indirectly to the skin or eyes). This particularly for relatively small exposure times. Yes they do contain a significant amount of UV, just like the sun. Indirect exposure to the skin should not be dangerous. I guess I was asking about general practices among users of these machines. Thanks for all your suggestions.

 

[Mike Wilde]

Silly me, I sort of thought they all had interlocks, but I guess that with the lamp warm up time you want to have them cooking before actually flipping media into them.

At the theatre where I do lighting rigging from time to time a while ago we rented a specialty luminare, called a Wildfire. It was a metal halide source, specially coated and filtered to mostly just put out UV . It had a bit of a blue glow, but man it would make blacklight sensitized hues jump to life at distances approaching 10m!

It had a large warning label to cation not to position it closer to people than 3m, and to limit overall exposure time.

I was involved in being the model to move around during focussing and level set. Good oxyaceteline goggles were a help, but I actually got a bit of a 'sun burn' on my exposed arms after a few hours monkeying wit the thing.