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Comment by pengaru | Hacker News Reader

Before I got my auto-darkening mask when first learning GTAW welding I had a few close calls. The window is so dark you simply have no sense that a fire has started until it may be too late, you can't see anything at all unless it's the brightness of a lightning bolt.

Even with the auto-darkening window the field of view is substantially reduced.

I wonder if in the future welding masks will integrate fire alarms.

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> I wonder if in the future welding masks will integrate fire alarms.

I don't really see that as a feature anyone wants.

It's pretty easy and straightforward to buy a fire/CO alarm and keep it near you. If you need to be mobile, it seems straight forward to put them on a cheap chest rig.

I get that there might be some convenience factor involved, but:

1. It's pretty terrible UX to add weight to people's heads. Even a little bit makes everything a lot worse.

2. Having an alarm integrated into a mask is going to a Gillette razor blades / HP inkjet situation, where the alarms have to be changed out every 6 months and cost $200. There is great virtue in staying on the path of high volume and multiple suppliers.

I could see it being an additional feature to AR masks, add a ir sensor and some machine learning to classify as welding spark vs material or liquid fire and you don't need to change parts.

May end up being a good use for a VR headset. Pass-through video with HDR support.

This is actually how HDR image processing was invented:

http://wearcam.org/mannventionz/mannglas.htm

Steve Mann is a super interesting and very nice character.

Oh that Steve Mann.

Yeah I probably fished that idea out of long term memory.

So besides 1) looking like a cyberman and 2) likely being dangerously clunky for working up high, I wonder why these didn't take off?

This seems like such a cool idea that I wonder if anyone's already working on it. I've only done the most meager amount of welding, but the "position the tools exactly where you need them to be, snap your head to flip the visor down, do the task while barely being able to see what you're doing, then manually flip the visor back up" workflow seems like it could be improved. The auto-darkening visors mean less fiddling with the mask, but you still can't really see what you're doing, and I think the jury is out on whether or not long-term use of the auto-darkening visors will damage your eyes based on the teensy amount of flash exposure you get with each weld. I wonder if a specialized camera could provide better visibility in the extreme brightness.

I meant to ask: Do you guys close your eyes for a moment when you start the weld, or just burn your retinas a little bit?

Sounds like the latter...

I believe my machinist friends call this the "safety squint". :P Their attitude appears to be that a little bit of flash from occasional welding isn't going to hurt you; it's the professional welders who're at it all day who need to take the most care.

I’ve heard it as the OSHA squint although I do like the alliteration of your’s.

I close my eyes. And I have a pretty fast set of glasses even so it's not enough to be able to avoid a blind spot after an hour or more of work. Better safe than sorry. The auto darkening glasses make it much easier to start a weld though, you know exactly where you are relative to the workpiece, which especially with stick welding is the difference between a lot of cursing + frustration and some reasonably good work.

The dynamic range for the types of sensors needed would be immense, even with Neutral Density filters...sounds like a fun project!

I’ve seen pictures on reddit of guys using a piece of cardboard and a smartphone as a “welding mask”.

Interestingly, I've seen the equivalent of this on the low end - workers in third-world machine shops or electronics recycling places with an opaque block between them and the workpiece, with a cell phone and its camera slotted into a cutout. Just look at the phone screen, not the workpiece.

I consider a CO2 Fire extinguisher as standard as a metal brush. Keep it just as close as your brush and the pin out. I used to TiG and the fire risk is at least predictable and reasonably avoidable. With a MiG, you can start a fire 8 feet away.

The auto-dark can be a mixed bag as you leave it down longer and less likely to notice a fire due to the field of view that you mention.

I'm not sure how you would build a fire alarm. Coatings tend to smoke so detecting ionized air would probably just drive you nuts.

Modern auto-dark shields have periferal vision windows.

One of the most used brands around these parts is SpeedGlas by 3M

https://www.awsi.com.au/3m-speedglas-9100xxi-welding-helmet-...

they will not. ever. wanna know why? economics. until economy is taken out, it will always prevail

That's why we have rules, regulations, and laws.

exactly my point. economy is taken out when you apply a law or a regulation

on what OP idea suggested we currently have market/economy as the one that dictates it, hence none implemented this

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