Safety glasses have evolved. Still comprised of protective frames, tempered glass or plastic lenses, temples and side shields which provide eye protection from moderate impact and particles, they’re now offered in various styles and shades. Employees have begun to actually enjoy wearing their safety glasses on the job.
Are you an employer looking for the best safety products to accommodate your employees? Are you a weekend warrior renovating her country home, debating between the goggles, safety glasses, or face shield? There’s enough useful information in these pages to help you perform those riskier jobs — both big and small — with the proper protection for your eyes, ears, face and head.
How Durable Are Safety Glasses?
Today most safety glass lenses are made from an extremely tough substance called poly-carbonate. The impact resistance of a poly-carbonate lens is ten times higher then a hardened glass lens. Used in bullet proof windows, poly-carbonate can be molded in opaque or clear material. In clear form it’s superb for optical lens manufacturing.
While these lenses gain their strength from being flexible instead of rigid like glass lenses, they are prone to scratching; therefore, they’re usually protected by a hard coating. Despite this hard coating, poly-carbonate lenses should to be handled carefully, and cleaned regularly with soap and water and dried with soft tissue. Generally, glass lenses are more expensive, and not as fashionable.
Flexibility and Colored Lenses
Some safety glasses offer both angle and length adjustment of the temples. It allows the lens to be tilted so that it offers the best protection for any job. This special feature is extremely helpful to those with asymmetrical faces. Smaller styles that have a more aggressively curved lens are available for women and children.
Colored lenses are offered in different tints and coatings. They are used in varying degrees, such as: vision enhancement, glare reduction and cosmetic appeal. Several examples are the gray, amber-yellow and mirror coated lenses.
The gray lens significantly reduces glare in sunny and bright conditions by 80%. The amber-yellow lens improves contrast and filters out blue light in overcast conditions. The mirror coated lens is used more for its cosmetic appeal, but has been known to filter out more light than a gray lens.
The Right Safety Glasses For You
Selecting the right safety-glasses depends on the job at hand. High impact hazards at work make it imperative that you select the appropriate safety glasses. They should provide adequate eye protection, so there are no gaps in the critical areas. Poly-carbonate lenses are recommended. Specialized safety glasses must be worn when working with dangerous rays like laser light or welding. Laser lenses must be selected specifically based on each laser’s characteristics, such as wavelength and power.
Getting workers to wear safety glasses used to be a problem. But safety glasses have become less cumbersome and more stylish. The snazzier the brand, the better the chances of your employees’ compliance.