Laser safety

Laser safety in Australia is regulated by
AS-60825, “Safety of laser products”

Updated 6 April 2026 by Neil Silke.

SCOPE: This article covers industrial lasers, not medical or cosmetic lasers. Medical or cosmetic lasers are different and require the operator to be registered in some states, such as Tasmania, Queensland and Western Australia, but this article is not aimed at or authoritative on medical and cosmetic lasers.

So far as I can find, Western Autralia is the only state that requires registration of workplace lasers, via the Radiological Council in W.A. This is detailed at the end of this section.

The standards for industrial laser welders and cleaners are well established. Australia, New Zealand and most of the world has adopted the European laser safety and machinery standards as discussed in this article. These standards were established at least ten years ago and are accepted as safe.

Most Australian Standards are not actually legislated. However the standards could be legislated in the future, and either way it is foolish not to follow them. By following the relevant set of Australian Standards, in the event of an incident you can demonstrate that you did all things reasonably possible to manage your risk. And, of course, the risk of an accident is greatly reduced if you follow Australian Standards in your workplace. AS/NZS 60825 recommends that a workplace has a designated Laser Safety Officer. This would normally be your OH&S person, after doing a laser safety training course such as an on-line course. Online courses are usually very broad so, in addition, they should read this and other articles on laser safety to get a practical understanding of the hazards and recommendations for laser welding and cleaning.

As stated in AS-60825, hand held laser welders and cleaners are class 4 devices, meaning exposure to them can cause eye and skin damage. They can also start fires close to the laser handpiece where the intensity is high. DESPITE the videos you may see of people using them without eye protection, lasers MUST be treated with respect and the proper precautions must be taken. This is especially true because the laser light is invisible, so there is zero warning that laser light is present. Our laser welders focus the beam at the welding zone, and the beam then diverges, becoming less intense as it moves away from the welding handpiece. To illustrate the risk: Our calculations show the laser intensity is high enough to damage eyes up to 130m away, if not enclosed.

It is interesting to understand where the legal requirements come from. From an Australian federal legislative framework and legal perspective Safe Work Australia (safeworkaustralia.gov.au) is the government body that monitors and tries to improve workplace safety. They work with the Australian Standards committees, who decide what standards should be adopted, and if necessary would ask the relevant minister to make certain standards legislated (legally mandatory).

State Legislation is usually found in the published rules of each State Government’s OH&S (occupational health and safety) department. These rules are generally high level, requiring the company or owner to create a safe environment and avoid workers being exposed to injury. They may or may not reference an Australian Standard directly.

Note that Safe Work Australia prohibits Class 4 (and Class 3b) lasers for building and construction, because the environment is not controlled. However industrial uses such as metal fabrication in controlled, enclosed areas are allowed.

For detailed laser safety requirements, Safe Work Australian directs us to another government body, ARPANSA (Australian Radiation Protection and Nuclear Safety Association). As of 22 February 2026, ARPANSA says “Lasers are classified according to the hazard associated with their emissions, as defined in the Australian/New Zealand Standard AS/NZS IEC 60825.1:2014 Safety of Laser Products Part 1: Equipment classification and requirements, AS/NZS IEC 60825.14:2011 Safety of Laser Products Part 14: A User’s guide.”

ARPANSA also says the following safety eyewear standards are to be followed:

“The Australian standard AS/NZS 1337.4:2011 Eye and face protection Part 4: Filters and eye protectors against laser radiation (laser eye-protectors) outlines appropriate eyewear requirements for protection when using lasers. The previously mentioned AS/NZS IEC 60825.14:2022 Safety of laser products Part 14: A User’s Guide (specifically Section 8.4.5 Personal Protection) also discusses the use of laser safety eyewear.”

For further information about Western Australia’s requirements, which are analagous to the treatment of vehicles, whereby you require a license to drive, and the vehicle must be registrered. Please refer to:
https://www.radiologicalcouncil.wa.gov.au/Licences
https://www.radiologicalcouncil.wa.gov.au/Registrations

NEW LASER EYEWEAR STANDARD AS 19818.1 vs AS1337.4 (EN207)

According to standards.org.au, in late 2023 AS19818.1 superseded the long standing AS1337.4 (which adopted the European Standard EN207). However as we discussed above, as of February 2026 ARPANSA is still calling up AS 13374.4. Furthermore, when arranging third party certification of our laser welding helmet in 2023, a member of the EN 19818 committee advised that we test to EN 207.

In summary: Laser welding and cleaning eyewear should be compliant with AS/NZS 1337.4 which is equivalent to European standard EN207. AS19818.1 will take over gradually, and both are valid.

WHICH LASER PROTECTIVE BARRIER AND WINDOW STANDARD TO USE?

Until now, our windows have been certified to AS/NZS 12254 (same as EN 12254). However this standard is based on 100W striking the window. For indirect reflections or welding a metre or two away this is valid. However 3000W lasers are now commonplace and we want to cover the worst case reflections at close range. For years we have performed in-house testing of our windows to AS/NZS 1337.4 (EN207), to check the penetration resistance with specular reflections at 50cm, as a worst case exposure. It is also valid to certify to AS/NZS 60825-4 which covers laser guards used to enclose the process zone of laser-processing machines.

AS/NZS 11553 REGULATES LASER MACHINE SAFETY

Laser welders, cleaners and cutters should meet AS/NZS 11553, which defines the required design standards including interlocks, emergency stops and labelling. It also requires risk assessments. Part 2 of the 11553 series governs hand held processing machines, and calls up many other standards.

The overarching and broader machine safety standard is AS/NZS 4024 which is based on EN ISO 12100.

SAFETY OF MIG OR TIG ARC WELDING VS LASER

Laser and arc welding both have light-based dangers

Note that arc welders (MIG, TIG, etc.) also present significant hazards to users and bystanders. In comparison, fibre lasers produce much less UV (ultraviolet, which is ionising radiation which means it causes cell and gene damage) than electric arc welders. However fibre lasers produce a far higher amount of near infrafed (invisible heat) light energy than arc welders. Both produce a very bright weld pool of hot, molten metal, so both need shaded lense filters to reduce the brightness, but lasers less so. Where an arc welder may need shade 12 to reduce the brightness to a comfortable level, a laser welder or cleaner usually only needs around shade 5 or 6. However some welding can be visibly very bright, so we strongly recommend the use of a welding helmet with variable shade, such as our Gen 3 laser welding helmet. Its external shade control knob is unique and ergonomic, allowing quick shade changes without the risk of removing the helmet to access internal shade controls.

Laser welders produce less fire and burn risk

When it comes to spatter and hot molten metal flying around, lasers are best by far. Lasers produce few if any sparks, and the sparks are small with very little energy. Anyone who has MIG or stick welded has been burned or had spatter fall in their boot and quickly burn into their skin. Not to mention the spatter that contributes to baldness by always managing to land on your scalp. Laser welding can produce small sparks, but far less than MIG or stick welders. Lasers also produce less bulk heat, so items are cooler to the touch. As such lasers present a much lower fire and burn hazard.

Laser welders produce less dangerous fumes than MIG or TIG

Laser welders are safer than MIG welders when it comes to welding fumes. MIG produce a lot of tiny airborne soot, and fume such as vaporised metal and metal ions. These are inurious over time when inhaled, and the danger is becoming more well known. The most harmful types are Chrome and Nickel based from oxidation (the black stain on stainless steel when MIG or TIG welded), and the Chrome is often present as hexavalent chrome (Cr6+) which is a known carcinogen.

Laser welders input about one quarter of the heat of arc welders, as demonstrated by the reduced distortion and very small heat affected zones.

Laser welds don’t need grinding, so reduce dust hazards

Most laser welds require no, or very minimal grinding. In comparison, MIG welds (and my TIG welds, if you’ve ever see them!) require a lot of grinding to achieve a professional finish. Grinding produces a lot of metal and abrasive dust, which is very hazardous to lungs.

Laser welders use less chemicals than MIG or TIG

Due to the smaller heat input, many laser welds on stainless steel do not even require cleaning. In general, silver, yellow or straw colour on stainless steel is considered non corrosive and does not require cleaning. In contrast, most MIG welds will require pickling (which uses dangerous hydrofluoric acid) or at least TIG brushing which uses a milder acid. If the welds are ground or brush to remove stain, once again laser welding is safer because these processes also produce dust and the risk of personal injury.

Laser welders produce less stress and coronary artery disease

Stress is a killer. As a business owner in the manufacturing industry I can assure you a laser welder reduces management stress because:

(a) Laser welding can be done with less skilled workers. This saves on payroll, training, recruiting and headaches, particularly where good workers are hard to find and expensive to hire.

(b) Laser welding is much faster and requires less rework and finishing. This saves a lot of money and increases throughput which also means less overhead cost per job. One business owner called to report their 60 minute TIG job was now taking 4 minutes with our G5 laser welder. That is 15 times faster, and they welds were neater and had full penetration. Your mileage may vary, but you can expect to weld at least 5x as fast as TIG.

HOW TO REDUCE THE LASER SAFETY RISK?

Simply put, an enclosed area is required with signage and correctly rated laser glasses. People must not be able to see in or enter unless wearing correctly rated laser eyewear. A light safe enclosure with warning light and interlock on the door is required for complete compliance.

Fortunately laser light from our laser welders is focused, so it expands and weakens. The further away you are from the laser, the lower the light intensity. Laser intensity drops exponentially as you move away, but at closer distances such as a workshop anyone’s eyes could be damaged, even by reflections.

The Australian Standards AS60825.1 and .14 should be followed, but some practical things to factor into your safety plan are:

Anyone in the enclosure must be using correctly rated laser eye protection. This means CE marking and D LB6 (or OD6) or higher for at least the range of wavelengths 1050-1090nm, or whatever wavelength your machine is rated at. Anyone within 6 metres of the welding must wear that eyewear and a laser welding helmet.
No one can be near the exit path of the laser (where a lot of the laser beam energy bounces off the surface at the same angle it hits the surface). Similar to a shooting range, never be out in front where the guns are pointed…
Use tall, dull black surrounds and panelling to absorb the laser light and avoid reflections. Black powder coated aluminium is the best material for an enclosure, at least 1.5mm thick. Cement sheet is also OK. Other materials will work, but can be a fire risk in the worst case.
Avoid anyone walking in unaware. Use signage to AS1319, such as the sign we provide with every machine, and wire up the provided door interlock circuit to a door switch which opens when the door starts to open.
If the room or door has windows, use approved laser rated viewing windows, ideally rated AB 6 to EN 12254, or D LB 6 or even OD6 or numerically higher. Place correctly rated glasses on the entry door for anyone about to enter the area, with signage.
Use bright work lighting. This makes it easy to see what you are welding, and keeps the iris small, in the “bright sunshine” mode which is our eyes’ natural defence to minimise solar radiation damage.
The molten welding pool is bright, and bright visible light can cause eye damage too. You will want to weld with an arc welding (Infrared blocking) filter shade around 4 or 5 and the glasses of point 1 for maximum safety.
Laser welders have a safety feature that only enables the laser to fire if the nozzle is in electrical contact with the sensing clamp (which is normally clipped to the steel welding table, or directly to the workpiece). If you lay the gun (welding head) on the metal workbench, or the gun can slip onto it, the gun is then enabled and could fire if it hits the trigger/s. This CAN happen, so please be sure to position the head on a non-conductive, non-slip surface, ideally leather or rubber, near but insulated from the welding table. And of course, don’t clip the sensing clamp to the welding head as that leaves the laser enabled and vulnerable to bumping the trigger button.
Don’t weld towards the door. Where possible, weld so the reflected laser light/radiation goes into a corner. It then has to reflect from at least two walls before it can head towards personnel. Each time it strikes a surface the radiation is absorbed and scattered to some degree. The darker and duller/textured the surface, the more the laser is absorbed and scattered.

Welding helmet strongly recommended

We feel naked with only glasses on, partly because reflections could bounce off your skin and off the inside of the laser glasses. In fact, we like our eyes so much we use a laser welding helmet AND D LB6 or OD6 glasses. Weld Australia also recommends this, along with IPG and others. The main reasons for wearing a heltmet over fibre laser glasses are:

Laser glasses do not provide enough protection in isolation. OSHA, the US regulatory body, requires OD 8 (attenuation by 10 to the power of 8, or 8 million) for laser welder eyewear. I don’t believe any glasses can meet this level of attenuation, and it they did, they would fail our close range penetration resistance requirement, which is at least D LB7 and preferably D LB8 to AS1337.4 or EN207. Our testing of many different fbre laser glasses shows many fall short of their ratings. Our glasses are rated slightly conservatively at D LB6 and OD6+ for approx. 900 to 1100nm. We have tested the attenuation of glasses marked as OD7 and OD8 (from US brands) and found their performance is no better than ours. In one case we complained and the supplier changed their marked rating, to their credit.
There are fake laser glasses on the market, particularly onAaliexpress, ebay and Amazon. We even found a large Chinese laser welder competitor supplying glasses which were fake! I tested them and found they were tinted green, with almost no laser blocking ability.
If you forget to flip your helmet down, you don’t get arc flash… you get eye damage. Laser glasses must be put on before turning the laser on. This gives basic protection for anything that could go wrong, then you flip the helmet down to get full protection before starting a weld.
To pass the 5 second close distance high intensity exposure test of EN207, laser welding helmets must be rated at least D LB7 and usually D LB8, like our Gen 2 and Gen 3 helmet. Most expensive european laser helmets such as Univet and Lasermet are only rated D LB6. The best laser welding helmets, such as ours and IPG’s, feature a reflective aluminium cover, which is not damaged by a direct reflection from a 2kW laser.
There is uncertainty in both helmet and glasses ratings (not really for ours, but certainly from other suppliers), so wearing both together minimises the risk of being caught short on protection level. As with laser glasses, I don’t trust welding helmet specifications. Some time ago a big Australian arc welding helmet brand published great numbers for response time of their welding helmet. I was getting flashed when MIG welding and challenged them. The company acknowledged they were wrong, but their marketing department did not change the great number when followed up… It seems they were trying to keep up with numbers the Chinese sellers were publishing. Buyer beware.

MIG welding spatter sparks flying

MIG welding produces large amounts of spatter and sparks. These are a fire and safety hazard. they also act as stress raisers, corrosion initiators and are cosmetic defects.

Close up showing white laser welding helmet worn while laser welding aluminium

Gen 3 laser welding helmet worn while laser welding aluminium

Laser welding produces little, if any, spatter, usually only small sparks when welding at the correct speed and parameters.

Isometric view of Laser Welder's new welding helmet showing shield and shade control knob

WHICH WELDING HELMETS ARE SUITABLE FOR LASER WELDING?

The vast majority of welding helmet manufacturers specifically state their products are NOT suitable for use with laser welders, including Miller, Lincoln, Unimig, Speedglas, etc. This is because they are not designed to withstand intense laser impacts, and not tested to laser safety standards.

When welding, we strongly recommend you wear both the rated laser glasses AND a welding helmet that has been tested as blocking 1070-1080nm (Near Infrared or IR) fibre laser light, such as the laser welding helmet from laser-welder.com.au

Our testing has shown other helmets’ inherent filtering (the silver reflective layers in the filter/lens) allow around 10 times as much infrared light to pass through as our Gen2 laser welding helmet. Fixed shade helmets are not great either, with our testing of a CIG fixed shade 9 filter (part number 453853) transmitting 37 times as much (!) IR through as our helmet. Also that solid glass lens quickly shattered during laser exposure testing, reducing protection to zero without warning.

Note that the LCD shutter (the bit that activates) is mainly for blocking visible light, so does not greatly affect the IR filtering.

WHAT FEATURES ARE RECOMMENDED FOR LASER WELDING HELMETS?

Based on years of experience and logical consideration, I recommend the following features in a laser welding helmet:

High protection level, to AS/NZS 1337.4 rated D LB 7 or higher. D LB8 is required to cover the worst case reflections with a 2 or 3 kW laser welder.
Variable shade control from shade 4 or 5 up to shade 9, which is the range you need for laser welding.
A large eyeport so you don’t need to lift the helmet all the time to see what you are doing. Our eyeport is about 3x the size of the main Chinese competitor, despite their RRP being much higher than ours.
External shade control knob for quick adjustments, and to avoid lifting the helmet to adjust the shade. Most helmets, in the same way as IPG’s carbon helmet, have a fixed shade which is not good for your eyes if the brightness of the weld requires a higher shade.
Reflective infrared filter (special glass with tuned rare earth coatings) rather than absorbtive (green plastic). This is because the green plastic has a low damage threshold and must be replaced when damaged, but our reflective filter has very robust coatings and can be re-used for years.
No clear plastic front cover. Even clear plastic covers can burn up when exposed to intense reflections, and degrade the protection of reflective filters.
Aluminium shield at least 1mm thick. This provides protection against all but the worst reflections, to prevent melting or penetrating the helmet shell
High temperature polymer for shell, to reduce melting risk.
Reflective white shell. White only absorbs about 10% of laser light, whereas black absorbs about 90%, so a black plastic shell will melt much quicker than white.
Comfortable head gear, as always.

Our Gen 3 helmet is the only helmet on the market which meets all of these requirements, despit it being one of the lowest priced. This makes safety affordable for all, which is important. If the safest helmet on the market is priced like an IPG carbon helmet at $2,600 it’s not very safe because people won’t be buying and wearing it.

PAPR is required if your extraction sytem can’t maintain a safe level of fume exposure. We have PAPR helmets in stock, so call if you need this.

HOW TO ADJUST A WELDING HELMET FOR LASER WELDING

Our Gen2 and Gen3 laser welding helmets have variable shade with an auto shutter filter. This is one of very few with this feature. The key benefit is you can adjust the shade to match the Visible Light Transmission (VLT) of the laser glasses you are wearing, which can vary a great deal. The helmet internal switch should be set to the 5-9 range, and you use the external knob on the LHS to adjust the brightness to suit your eyes/visibility. Its native shade is 4, but we suggest a shade around 5 depending on the VLT of the laser glasses you are using under the helmet and how bright the work lighting is.

The knob (LCD shutter setting for visible light transmission) does not really affect the UV or infrared protection. The protection is inherent in the silver coated layers in the filter, so you are protected from IR and UV to a large degree, even if the battery is flat. However the high brightness is not good for your eyes, so please adjust the LCD shutter to bring the brightness to a comfortable level where you can still see the weld in progress. Extra strong work lighting is recommended.

VARIABLE SHADE IS A MUST FOR LASER CLEANING HELMETS TOO

Despite laser cleaners spreading the laser around far more than a welder, the burning of the coatings can be extremely bright, even worse than welding. I find a laser welding helmet with an external shade control knob is essential to quickly dial down the very uncomfortable brightness, particularly on continuous wave cleaners which turn 2kW or 3kW into brightly burning and vaporised coatings. As you would expect, we also always wear laser glasses under the helmet when laser cleaning.

What laser safety glasses are required?

Laser safety glasses are critical to those using or exposed to the laser output and reflections. For use with high powered fibre lasers you really must wear a laser helmet over them. Even then, we recommend our glasses which are CE rated D LB 6 (DIR LB6 is also OK) at 1070nm wavelength (or whatever the actual output wavelength of your laser is). This basically means they only permit 1 millionth of light in that band to pass through. That is 0.0001 percent. In the USA OD ratings alone are allowed. Numerically higher ratings are better, unless the glasses are fake or wrongly marked, which our testing indicates.

Goggles are a step up on glasses because they guarantee no laser light can come in from behind the glasses. However they are bulky and you may need to adjust the helmet forward.

Laser safety eyewear in Australia is governed by AS1337.4 which adopts the European EN207 standard to specify performance requirements, test methods, marking requirements, selection and use of personal eye-protectors against laser radiation in the spectral range 180nm to 1000 micrometres.

In general, Australia follows European safety standards.

Don’t Use

1. Do not use glasses from other lasers

CO2 lasers are a totally different wavelength, and are usually blocked by generic safety glasses. BUT those glasses DO NOT block fibre lasers at all. You must check the wavelength of your laser and make sure your glasses are suitable.

2. Do not use Aliexpress or ebay generic laser glasses

Substitution is a problem in China (read up on powdered baby formula substitution in China) and polymers that block 1064nm are very expensive so it would be tempting to substitute it with coloured acrylic… Don’t risk it!!

3. Do not use IPL glasses or LASER ENHANCEMENT

IPL glasses (intense pulsed light) only block a small amount of laser light, so are NOT safe.

Laser enhancement glasses are use for building surveying lasers and are NOT of protective value for us.

Quality laser glasses are marked accordingly.

Look for laser eyewear meeting EN207. EN 207 marks the the laser resistance or penetration rating as “LB”. OD or Optical Density ratings are better known, so we mark them as well. HOWEVER, LB ratings matter more, as they rate the lens for higher powered penetration. A lens could have high OD from a thin film that burns away quickly when struck directly, so would have a low LB rating. LB, OD and the wavelength range are marked on the lens or the frame. I prefer lens markings, as they are an indication that the lenses absorb laser, and hence are marked by it. However unscrupulous suppliers could supply green acrylic which can be marked by a CO2 laser, and hence they would be totally unsafe…

Glasses which actually glass or glass-like lenses are usually marked on the frame. However absorbtive glass like alexandrite is great until it shatters from thermal stress, so we no longer recommend them for high powered lasers.

Ratings wise, you are looking for D LB6 or numerically higher. The bigger the number the more laser light they block out), and wavelength covering 1060-1085nm at least. Our plastic glasses have full thickness protection from the polymer, but some glasses rely on the coating, so if the coating is has wear or scratches do not use them.

Close up view of protection ratings on green fibre laser glasses

Close up of laser glass ratings on green laser glasses

Laser glass ratings to EN207 AS1337.4

markings on laser glasses explained

Laser protective glasses markings are broken into ranges. This is because the minerals that absorb or reflect the laser radiation only do so for certain wavelength ranges. For fibre laser welding the wavelength range of interest is usually 1060 to-1090nm, and the glasses will have a “D LBx” marking, or “ODx” In the green glasses above we find the range “800-1100nm” which covers our wavelength range. DIR LB6 is the EN207 (AS1337.4) protection rating. D means constant wave, and our laser welders are constant wave, so the glasses provide the D LB6 minimum rating we want. They should also have a CE marking.

If the glasses have a range like “800-1100nm” with OD6 that means the glasses are US or ANSI standard, with “Optical Density” of 6. By definition, OD6 attenuates that wavelength by a factor of 10 to the power of 6 (one million). If used in the USA they should also have a “VLT” marking. OD6 is basically equivalent to D LB6, but OD ratings only cover low powered reflection, not the high powered penetration test of EN207.

Glasses to the new standard AS19818.1 (EN19818-1) considers both ways of measuring and marking.

WHICH LASER SAFETY GLASSES ARE NOT SAFE?

We recently ran tests on 12 pairs of laser safety glasses and goggles, 3 automatic welding helmets, a fixed welding filter and a laser safety viewing window. This was done using a 1064nm fibre laser, and a very sensitive laser power meter reading from 0.01mW up to 200mW. We will publish the results soon, but the most critical and urgent finding is that the cheap glasses from ebay, Amazon, etc. that promise to cover every wavelength (which is impossible because they would also block visible light, and you couldn’t see through them!) DO NOT block fibre lasers. This is outrageous, but the only solution is to be well informed and buy carefully. As they say in racing, if you have a $10 head you buy a $10 helmet. The worst glasses are shown below, with the red and blue lenses being totally unaffected by the laser. The green lense versions had a tiny heat mark on the lenses, so they absorbed a tiny amount of infra-red, but basically nothing.

Laser safety glasses that do not protect the user

All of these ebay and Amazon glasses do not block fibre lasers

Test results will be published soon

Which brands of laser safety glasses are SAfe?

Laser-Welder have not tested these brands of laser safety eyewear, but all are reputable and likely to be safe when correctly selected for wavelength and optical density: NoIR, Laservision, Yamamoto, Thorlabs, Glendale/Sperian, Offenhaeuser + Berger, Kentek. In the US we recommend Innovative Laser Safety, which we have tested.

Several other brands exist, and correctly specified eyewear from a large US or European specialist should be OK. Australian sellers (not ebay or Amazon) who state that their products are suitable for your application and provide them with the “CE marking should be safe. The marking should be “D LB6” or “DIR LB6” or numerically higher, in a range that covers 1080nm at least.

Black glasses case with LASER WELDER glasses