Possible harm to eyes from viewing arc welding on TV?

[JB5pro]

I put this here because I think if this is true it would only be so on newer sets.
We know our eyes can be burned out if we view arc welding without special dark glasses. When we see arc welding on TV it seems bright enough to possibly hurt the eyes as well. Will watching such cause harm?
Thank you,
John

[jeyurkon]

Originally Posted by JB5pro

I put this here because I think if this is true it would only be so on newer sets.
We know our eyes can be burned out if we view arc welding without special dark glasses. When we see arc welding on TV it seems bright enough to possibly hurt the eyes as well. Will watching such cause harm?
Thank you,
John

ARC welding puts out a lot of UV that isn't reproduced by a TV. When you get enough distance from the ARC welding UV is less of a concern because it is attenuated by the air. It can still be bright enough though to cause damage.

I don't know of any TV that has the dynamic range to reproduce the brightness of an ARC so I seriously doubt the possibility of eye damage.

However, I did think I was going to blind myself when I was working on a rear projection set with the screen removed. Looking at the CRTs directly was painful.

John

[RobtWB]

always wear your full welding hood, apron and gloves while watching television programs that may contain scenes of any type of welding - these programs include, but are not limited to, ModernMarvels - American Chopper - OCC et cetera - of course the above statement only applies if you happen to be watching programs on a PLASMA screen television

[andy]

---

[Red Raster]

Just a flashback to the past i have had to replace vidicon tubes in video cameras on the back ends of city garbage trucks, they were damaged by
arc welding exposure, if i recall the cameras were left running while the trucks were worked on.

[old_tv_nut]

Originally Posted by andy

Not a chance. You could make the whole screen go as bright as the set is capable of, and it still wouldn't be even close to dangerous.

What he said - the brightest part of any TV's picture is probably no more than 50 ft lamberts (equivalent to a brightly lit office) and usually quite a bit less; white objects in sunlight are about 5000 ft lamberts (a bit dazzling without sunglasses); the arc welding is MUCH brighter than that, with lots of UV, which will cause damage if viewed directly - but it cannot possibly be reproduced that bright nor with UV on a TV.

[wa2ise]

Originally Posted by Red Raster

Just a flashback to the past i have had to replace vidicon tubes in video cameras on the back ends of city garbage trucks, they were damaged by
arc welding exposure

A bit like the TV camera on the 2nd moon landing mission Apollo 12. Worked fine until the astronauts needed to move it off the lander to set it on a tripod. The camera got pointed at the Sun by accident and ruined the pickup tube. OOPS. It didn't put the astronauts at risk, but NASA surely suffered a public relations setback (no TV from the Moon? ). Anyway, the camera takes the hit and saves your eyes.