I’e welded a length of weld (approx 1” @ 100amps) after cleaning my speedglas helmet, I didm’t realize that I had altered the setting from auto to manual, and turned the darkness off !!!!!
done this myself monty, where the mask has accidently got knocked onto grinding mode, I check everytime now, and I'm sure the glass itself protects you from the UV, but sure someone a lot more knowledgeable will be along to explain, dont worry monty
I haven't had this happen to me with the mask yet but I have had arc eye, if you wake up in the morning with a headache and your eyes all stuck together with gunge and sore, it got you, then just rinse with clear water and wait to recover, should be a lot better next day
you won't have any trouble at all. even a pair of safety glasses stops the UV which is why most shops insist on the lads wearing them all the time to protect from others arcing up ect.
No, auto helmets passively block UV and IR at about shade 16 - look at the booklet that came with it. It's UV which causes arc eye. The electronics and auto darkening turn on the visible light part of the filter. Without the electronics they are usually about shade 4 for visible light, which is roughly as strong as two or three pairs of sunglasses.
If you'd kept it up all day you might be in some trouble, but not for a second or two. It's about like having some idiot fire a flash in your face.
As previously mentioned, the glass will stop any arc related damage to your eyes. A welding flash is painful and you can get them from reflections off a white surface even if you are not looking at the arc. When I was serving my time a lot of the older welders recommended wet tea bags as a method of initial relief from the pain before getting medical treatment. Arc Eye is a permanent problem from repeated welding flashes and is not nice but you don't see it nowadays, in industry at least. I got more skin flashes than eye flashes by not covering up properly mainly when mig welding.
I was looking for a thread about helmets not darkening.
Was welding some 6mm mild plate onto an old calor gas bottle today. Paint removed.
For some reason, welding either of them on their own results in a normal darkness, but when I was welding them together, it was incredibly bright. Like squinted eyes bright.
I've had this happen in confined spaces. The glass is giving a clear view of what I'm doing but the light to the sensing panel is blocked so the mask doesn't realise. I've never got arc eye that way though, it's just a nuisance.