Welding Helmets for Safety Every Time
If you’re doing a spot of welding, you’ll need one of our protective welding helmets. Complete with
welding lenses, our welding helmets will shield your eyes, face, and neck from flash burns, flying sparks, fiery heat, and light of the infrared or ultraviolet variety. Are you still wondering why welding helmets are essential for metalworkers? Without a facial shield, you leave yourself vulnerable to eye and skin injury, including cornea inflammation (a condition known as ‘arc eye’), retina burns (which can cause vision loss), and skin damage akin to temporary sunburn. So, the next time you bring out the
MIG guns, be sure to rig yourself up with one of our welding helmets for your own personal safety.
What Kind of Helmet Do I Need for Welding?
Welding helmets usually come in either a passive or electronic/auto-darkening style, and your choice will depend on your preferences — and the type of welding you’re carrying out. You may consider the amount you can see from the inside looking out, the lens’s range of shade, whether that shade is fixed (passive) or automatic (auto-darkening), or whether you want adjustable settings — perhaps for sensitivity or shade delay.
Passive Welding Helmets
If you want to keep it simple, a passive helmet may be your ideal option. They come ready-made with tinted glasses that block ultraviolet and infrared light, which you flip up and down as you alternate between inspecting your weld and getting to work. While they are a lightweight option, some metalworkers may fatigue or even develop repetitive strain injuries from the frequent flips. You also need to be diligent with them as you manually shield your eyes from the hazardous light.
Electronic/Auto-Darkening Welding Helmets
If you prefer something more high-tech, electronic helmets may be more your thing. With electronic helmets, there’s no need to flip-flop between light and darkness, as these helmets have sensors that detect when you weld, darkening the lens automatically — hence the ‘auto-darkening’ title. There are two sub-types of electronic helmets: fixed-shade and variable-shade. Advanced models sometimes come with further features, such as adjustable sensitivity, shade delay, and settings relating to the helmet’s grind mode.
How Do I Choose a Good Welding Helmet?
Most critically, you should ensure your welding helmet complies with Australian and New Zealand Safety Standards AS/NZS 1337 and AS/NZS 1338. This way, you can weld away knowing your face, neck, and eyes are safe from flying debris and hazardous proportions of ultraviolet and infrared light, which can damage retinas and even cause cataracts. You should also choose a helmet that’s comfortable, as you may be wearing it for several hours at a time. A welding helmet isn’t the lightest load to carry on your head, so finding a model with an adjustable harness may help distribute the weight more evenly.
If you’re purchasing an auto-darkening helmet, look out for models with a response time of four-tenths of a millisecond: a unit of time unperceivable to the eye. A helmet with such a reaction time is sure to bring the most comfort to the welding experience. If you’re working at lower amperages — for example, while using
TIG welders — it may also be a good idea to invest in an auto-darkening helmet with adjustable sensitivity controls.
Shop the Best Range of Welding Helmets
At Cigweld, we have the best range of welding helmets and
welding accessories available at our online shop. Stock up on all your essentials so that you can be fully equipped the next time you slip on your
welding gloves. From protective welding helmets to
MIG welding machines, we’ve got it all. Shop the range at Cigweld today.
