Standards Development

Scope

This document specifies functional requirements and a product labelling applicable to temporary and permanent passive guards (in the following called screens) for protection against laser radiation. This document includes test methods for testing functional performance and the specification of the user documentation to be supplied with the product. The screens are designed to protect the user from unintentional exposure to direct and/or diffuse laser radiation; a time limited exposure to laser radiation, based on the functional requirements determined by risk assessment. This document applies to supervised screens for installations in working places at which laser radiation up to a maximum mean power of 100 W or single pulse energy of 30 J occurs within the spectral range between 180 nm (0,18 μm) and 106 nm (1000 μm). This document applies to the protection against laser radiation only. This document does not apply to other hazards including hazards from secondary radiation that can arise during, for example, material processing. This document gives guidance on how to select such screens. Laser enclosures and housings that are supplied as part of the laser product or are supplied to be fitted to a laser system to form a laser product (according to EN 60825-1:2007) are not considered to be within the scope of the document.

Purpose

The scope of standard EN 12254 limits unnecessarily the exposure to 100 W average power or 30 J single pulse energy, although scale numbers DIRM AB1 to AB10 can be tested whereby the limiting values frequently are exceeded.

Also the scope excludes unnecessarily laser enclosures, although such screens are used in most cases explicitly for laser enclosures.