Thread: Auto darkening welding helmets

Trust me he's not pulling any chain of mine:eek:

But he could weld it for you if it breaks...

In essence ,I feel that Shane is voicing his concern about cheap welding Auto darkening welding helmets. Certainly there are probably some crook ones out there.I have yet to see a specific concern about a particular helmet. The body of his argument is concerned with cheap manufacture. Bear in mind though many items we buy from China are cheap because of wages ,but also because of improved technology and scale of manufacture.

With the concern over the UV penetrating the LCD, realise this- the clear lens filter cover alone will stop UV-it is not the UV one sees as the intense light.Do your research folks and find out UV is not in the visible spectrum of light. If you wear safety glasses, as a carefull welder should,the problem is solved ,if there ever was one.

One has only to look back to a time when Japanese manufacture was considered shoddy. The same for the Taiwanese and the Koreans. They have improved markedly over time and so have and will the Chinese manufacturers, like it or not.
I would like to illustrate my argument in this way:
What follows is a comparison between two auto darkening welding helmet units .

The first a top Brand hopefully and the secondly ,what some would consider cheap. I merely say it is better value for money. My perception is based upon using the item as well as the data from the vendors.

The Miller FS10 is listed as an entry A/ Darkening light duty welding helmet suitable up to 150 amp range
The darkening time is listed at 1/3600 th of a second.
It is not recommended as suitable for Tig.

The Tecmen is a light duty A/D welding helmet that has a switching time of 1/10,000 of a second from light to dark.It covers the range from Din 3 to Din 11.

When clear you can see through the lense, similiar to the strength of say, a no 3 filter lense -say oxy lens strength.
When operating ,the filter has the same light transmission as a No 11 dark welding filter lense. Though I can,t find recommendation for or against, I have used it down to 40 amps AC, 33 amps DC using inverter tigs.

Both Auto darkening helmets are compliant with ANSI Z87.1 which is the only certified ( US ) standard relative to auto darkening helmets I can locate.

I believe both are are suitable for the range of general welding amperages, I suspect that our forum readers engage in.

I have researched the Tecmen brand and found that the company dates back to 1984 making welding helmets. If they are guilty of making sub standard products, it seems a very long time for them to be getting away with it.

If I thought that this unit was unsafe I would bin it immediately and let the forum know about about any potential danger. If any has found something specific that indicates that features of a specific helmet,may be harmful let them speak up, and for the good of all of us .

I have no particular axe to grind here and I don,t have any connection with selling them.

Grahame

Further to what Graham said, remember this experiment: in the UK, some clever bastard experimented with the effect of price on sales of cat food. They chose cat food because, unless it's so foul tasting that the cat won't eat it or so lacking in nutrition the cat gets sick or dies, we don't actually have any way of knowing which brand is better than any other.

What this clever bastard found was that if you put the price up by a certain margin people bought more of exactly the same brand of catfood, with the same label etc. Presumably, in the absence of any actual objective data, people resort to assuming that the more expensive stuff must be the good stuff.

This is not a lesson lost on people in the marketing profession. I always try to bear this in mind when shopping.

G’day fellow Threadmiesters, I would like to add to this thread by announcing that I have recently purchased an auto darkening welding helmet from eGay for $69 delivered and it is AWESOME, it fits well, it’s nice and light, it has plenty of ventilation, it darkens in 1/20,000 of a second which I find is quick enough for the stick welder, I have used 9 welding rods in a row on a steel plate to see how my eyes may react and all was fine, no itchiness, redness or headaches, just motivation to do more welding was the only side affect. The brand was OPTIMAL.

George,
I am interested if the helmet has a reference to a Code or a Standard either on the helmet itself or the packing.
This I think is central to the issue of price and quality.

Also is the harness and associated fittings durable.Some of the supposedly good brands I have worn in the past have been a bit sharpish on my rapidly balding head.

If we can convince potential helmet buyers to at least check for some sort of code like this :

This product is fully complied to ANSIZ87.1 standard of the United States and the quality requirement of European Union, which is specified in 89/686/CE Appendix II of EN175:1994.

We are then halfway there in adressing the safety concerns of these helmets.


I hope your acquisition work's wonders in welding for you!

Grahame

Great read here thanks all,There is some reference to Euro Standard ISO9001 Link to Ebay

Hi Graham, Hi All,
I did find this in the User Manual that came with it. Info as follows

• TECHNICAL AND QUALITY COMPLIANCE

This product is fully compliant to ANSIZ87.1 standard of the United States and the quality requirement of European Union, which is specified in 89/686/CE Appendix II of EN175:1994.

As for any sharpish bits for receding gents, none that I can feel, it is very comfortable and there is what appears to be some soft vinyl wrapped around the forehead strap.
The harness itself looks to be quite good, I wouldn't say bullet proof but if you where to look after it, it looks like it would last a very long lime with out any problems.
I hope I have been of some help in this issue.

It's worth having a look at Tecmen's website: www.tecmen.cn. It's quite informative. Two of their helmets seem to be on the Oz market:

- their el-cheapo fitted with their 100F filter, which is fixed shade, no sensitivity adjustment

- their slightly better model fitted which is adjustable shade and a bigger viewing area. This seems usually to be sold with the Tecmen 300S filter, which is adjustable sensitivity, although that is not always easy to tell from online pictures and descriptions. It may also be sold with the Tecmen 300 filter, which is betweent the 100F and 300F in size, and does not have sensitivity adjustment (but is variable shade)

The best price I've seen on the better model is $129 from Total Tools although that seems to be a sale price. Mostly it seems to be $150 or so.

The best price I can find on the basic model is $70 ($80 delivered) from www.dealsdirect.com.au.

I got myself a Speedglas 9002V. $500. What are your eyes worth?

Of course I can do the head flip, it makes it easier if you take out one of the roll pins in the hinge and put in a short piece of nail etc.

I hope to teach my children that Chinese = crap.

Politicians have decreased tariffs to kiss the #### of asian manufacturers because they are scared they will be left out of the globalisation race. Who suffers- you. With welding helmets, it starts with your eyes.

Why do you see more Kingswoods on the road than Hyundai Excels?

A lot of it is relevant to amount of time using the item. I have a cheap $120 auto helmet at home that I wouldn't use more than a couple hours a week on average.

At work I use a Speedglas that I can use for up to 8 hours at a time. Comfort is important.

hi got one on ebay from geofftools ,auction was $67.00 posted . no batteries ,all solar . took me a couple of goes to win one ,first one i had bought to weld shed. magic for positional welding as you can see what you are doing this was battery one i had it for a year. misted over and couldnt see . so pulled it apart to clean it ,and dropped the lens . oh dear . there goes 100 bucks , will be more carefull with this one . good wishes bob

I used one when i was working for a Big mining company in the pilbarra 10 or so years ago. They were pretty new then. I would get what I thought was a mild case of weld flash with prolonged short runs etc. Other than that they are great.

I'm on my 10th year of using these types of helmets and over that period had a couple that I borrowed fail on me. Some of the brands only had a single sensor in the centre, so when your vision is partly obscured by part of the structure being welded it would not activate.
I use a top of the line "SPEEDGLAS" currently, ( I've had that one for around 8 years) and have never had a problem, even with high amperage aluminium. I use flip-ups outside or when there is a risk of damage or theft.