From the Blog

Eyesight is Essential: Carefully Choose Vision Protection

By Jeff Strahan, an American Welding Society Certified Welding Inspector and Certified Welding Educator and Instructor at Weber State University, Ogden, Utah. Reprinted with permission: The AWS Welding Journal The human eye is a marvel capable of giving good vision for a long time, if taken care of and protected. “I could weld that blindfolded!” If you have been around the welding industry as long as I have, which includes teaching welding theory and vocational welding classes for more than 30 years in Utah and the western United States, you have heard that said more than once. Truthfully, I admit to having made such a claim. We often take good vision for granted. To be a good welder, good vision is paramount to being able to make sound welds with all of the characteristics quality and inspection personnel require, as well as proper manufacturing efficiency dictates. How to improve welding by enhancing welders’ ability to see the work is detailed in the following sections. The Importance of Protecting Your Eyes Many people work every day with less-than-adequate vision correction or safety protection. Some are aware of this issue but compensate with various coping mechanisms like squinting, holding their heads back a little farther, or moving in closer than they should, which subjects them to hot gases as well as ultraviolet and infrared rays. In many inspection or teaching situations, I would learn the welder or student was unaware of his or her vision condition and welding equipment, but were still trying to make acceptable welds. I discovered many students in my classes, and welders working in construction or manufacturing environments, were trying to weld through scratched, dirty, broken, or otherwise nonworking safety glasses/welding lenses, or with vision that needed proper correction. Improvements Over the Years Prior, welders had to do what they could to overcome the deficiencies they were not willing to admit or didn’t realize they had. I have seen an enormous amount of change in equipment and its availability for the working welder over the five decades I have been involved in the welding industry. The equipment that can be purchased today for visual adaptation and utilization has an ever-increasing variety and a greater attention to detail, which makes products like safety glasses and dioptic lenses superior to the basic vision, personal protective equipment (PPE) of past years. Teaching Techniques Having taught welding classes in secondary, postsecondary, and industrial settings for more than 30 years, I have worked with students who had great expectations about being a welder who could weld with the best, but just couldn’t seem to make the leap to mastery. I have also struggled with beginning students who watched my demonstrations, and even with me coaching them in the booth or in the shop as they attempt the simplest of bead assignments, fail and become disappointed to the point of quitting. Often, I would engage students by holding their hands to help them feel the manipulations that go into creating a sound product. I would become disheartened when I released their hands  to see them revert to the same incorrect procedure. After trying several training methods, like having another instructor mentor them, letting them watch a video, or doing simple hand-eye coordination exercises, I would see improvement but only after weeks of practicing and struggling. My personal desire was to pass onto my students and clients this craft that can provide a lucrative income. How Vision Can Change In 1994, an event occurred that helped me see exactly what so many of my students and fellow workers were experiencing. I have always had excellent vision, even better than 20/20 vision for most of my life. This was something I took for granted and assumed most people had normal visual ability. But a subtle change happened when I reached the age of about 40. I began to notice a change in my vision, especially when it came to welding. It took longer for my eyes to focus on something I was looking at, like weld profile, size, and the difference between the weld metal and slag being produced in the weld. Like so many other strong-willed and proud-minded people in this profession, I refused to admit my vision was changing and no longer the exceptional tool I had grown accustomed to in my work. I adjusted and coped with the slow onslaught of vision change. I resisted the stigma that went along with someone having less-than-perfect vision. I had witnessed the alienation of those welders with vision-correction needs. Rich Humphreys, my ophthamologist of 20 years, acknowledged the physiological changes occurring in my eyes and explained what happens to an individual’s eyes as he or she ages. He said many people don’t realize their eyes are changing because the change is so gradual and subtle. Dr. Humphreys told me nearly half of our population lives and works with vision that should be corrected to see normally, but most don’t seek a vision specialist for various reasons, including social stigma. Years of being on projects where the “old man” was ridiculed for his glasses or a “cheater” lens in his helmet caused me to hide what inevitably comes to the majority of people later in life. In addition, those who fought vision issues from their younger years were quite often ostracized or jokingly made fun of because they had “the Hubble Telescope” in their helmets. Testing Your Sight Back in the ’60s and ’70s, when I began my welding career, welders with less-than-good vision did not make out as well on the job. They were often pushed to the sidelines, as a precaution for those “critical welds” where no chances would be taken on weld quality. This was a wrong that did not need to be exploited, and my entrance into that potential second-class pool of welders drove me to go undercover with my slowly approaching vision restrictions. At about the same time, I became an American Welding Society Certified Welding Inspector and took the biannual visual acuity testing. A realization of the basic vision needs of every person involved in welding or welding inspection had hit home with me. Vision testing was vital to good welder training, as well as welder ability and inspection requirements. Using the Proper Vision Correction Ultimately, what this did was produce a more realistic understanding of a widespread situation I immediately saw as a potential answer to why so many students or industrial-class welders I taught were struggling with welding skills and proficiencies. They were not using the proper vision correction necessary to see what they were doing. This was a true “Eureka” moment and opened a huge window of opportunity to help my students master skills of the welding trade. It was not just for those of an older age, but also younger people who did not realize they had a vision problem so easily rectified. My students were simply not seeing what they needed to see to make high-quality welds; they were in need of simple vision adjustments. Almost immediately, I was able to determine when a student was not having mechanical problems with skill development, but was dealing with an inability to see the welding process clearly, preventing them from adjusting their hand-eye coordination and manual manipulation for welding. Offering Options to Students When I made this discovery in the early ’90s, the selections in vision adjustment were not as good as they are today. I began by stocking dioptor lenses in my office and having students try differing powers of magnification with small print images and instructions. A student could test several types until he or she found one that suited their individual need. I also began stocking new lenses in the school bookstore that could be purchased for a few dollars. This practice helped show welding students how to improve their welding capabilities with dramatic results. Adhering to Medical Advice Students were advised to seek sound medical advice, and then coordinate what their doctor prescribed with wearing the proper PPE for their eyes. This widened my understanding of what the welding process can do to a welder’s eyesight over time. It also made me more aware of the optical problems that can arise with a welding career. To learn more, I also conducted some research, which led me to a recent study concentrated on color vision deficiency. Over time, welders can develop color blindness in one or both eyes; to prevent this, a welder must wear adequate eye protection (Ref. 1). Beware of Flash Burn One of the most prominent issues when it comes to arc welding injuries is flash burn. When an eyeball is flashed with an intense light, like a welding arc, even for a fraction of a second, the chemical that covers the back of the eye, the retina, is used up and the remaining chemical must flow back across the rods and cones, which cover the back of our eyes. That sensation of blinding white is the removal of the rhodopsin from the structures on the back of the eye, and the remaining chemical then migrates over the back of the retina to recover. This process takes as long as 30 min to completely recover after a flash burn. Too many instances of flash burn can result in “night blindness” and severely hamper one’s ability to drive or see in dark situations. A flash burn that’s severe enough can cause a welder or bystander a trip to the after-hours clinic for some pain relieving drops, and serves as a reminder to be careful around light and rays produced by welding. Wear Safety Glasses and Helmets The human eye is a marvel capable of good vision for a long time, if taken care of and protected from radiation, heat, contamination, and disease. For a welder, eyesight is essential; he or she must carefully choose PPE for maximum protection and visual acuity. Today’s suppliers of safety glasses have produced an abundance of choices for everyday use at a reasonable cost. Welders have a plethora of styles, colors, shades, and even dioptor selections to fit particular situations. They are up to date, trendy, attractive, and practical. Modern safety glasses are ideal to wear in the shop, on the road, or wherever protection from the sun and other factors is needed — Fig. 4. They have bifocal-type lenses now in progressive strengths, even in the darker shades. Most styles have side shields built in and surround the eye area with lightweight, impact-resistant protection. These new products have revolutionized the safety glass wearing requirements and include the prevalent need for vision acuity correction, while remaining fashionable and comfortable. Welding helmets are changing, too. Welding lenses that provide flash protection and variable shade-changing capabilities are available for even the most demanding welder. Welding gear caters to the ever-changing needs of the personnel performing one of the world’s most technological and artistic crafts. Helmets that give nearly 180 deg of peripheral vision, or are styled to fit close to the face to facilitate the special needs of welders, are available with vision-corrected lenses for every vision need. These new devices meet strenuous safety requirements and are relatively inexpensive for the protection provided. Conclusion For welders who need vision correction, there are solutions. A welder who is trying to weld with improper vision protection might as well be blindfolded. If you are in a welding training program and struggling with certain tasks, be sure to have your vision checked and replace those dirty, cracked, or scratched filter plates. Don’t wear out your precious eyes by straining to see through poor vision devices, whether in your choice of safety glasses or welding helmet filter plates. With all the suppliers and manufacturers of safety glasses, welding helmets, and other PPE, there’s no reason to suffer through less-than-adequate sight. Remove that blindfold and weld, cut, and see your work more clearly and safely. References
  1. Heydarian, S., Mahjoob, M., Gholani, A., Veysi, S., and Mohammadi, M. 2017. Prevalence of color vision deficiency among arc welders. Journal of Optometry 10(2): 130–134. http://doi.org/10.1016/j.optom.2015.12.007.

2024 Platinum Sponsors

2024 Sponsors

Become a Sponsor