Hearing Protector Tool

Howard Leight by Sperian (www.howardleight.com), is a simple disc that alerts workers to the danger of removing their hearing protection for even a few minutes.

The outer ring of the larger disc on one side of the device shows a range of decibel (dB) levels of attenuation provided by various hearing protectors (their published noise reduction rating), while the smaller disc shows time increments of 5, 10, 15 and 30 minutes.

To determine how much protection is reduced by removing a hearing protection device during a work shift for a cumulative amount of time, workers simply align the pointer to the appropriate dB level, or noise reduction rating on the outer ring, and read the effective protection in the cutout next to the time increments. The wheel uses a 5-dB exchange rate, per the OSHA standard.

The reverse side of the Wear-Time Evaluator lists a number of factors to consider when selecting hearing protectors for a workforce, including size, comfort, communication needs, and desired noise reduction. By moving the inner disc to each, key selection information is revealed.

Auto-darkening helmets

L incoln Electric (www.lincolnelectric.com) has introduced the Vista line of auto-darkening helmets that includes the Vista 3000 with a view size to 25 percent larger than many similarly priced helmets.

With the latest autodarkening technology, all Vista helmets include a full-featured cartridge with four arc sensors, variable shade, variable sensitivity and variable delay. Welders can also choose the lower priced Vista 1000 or Vista 2000 cartridge view sizes. All Vista helmet lens protect against harmful UV and invisible light.

Vista helmets are solar powered, so there is no power switch needed to turn on and off during or between jobs and no batteries to charge and no alkaline corrosion. The helmets include variable shade adjustment from shade 9 to 13. They also include variable sensitivity, including a grind mode that fixes the shade at the light state of shade 3 for grinding. In addition, a TIG mode assists the helmet in detecting the arc in low amperage welding applications. Variable delay is also included for protecting operators from the bright light of slow cooling weld nuggets during high amperage welding. Four independent arc sensors help ensure the auto-darkening lens reliably and safely darkens in any application – moving from light to dark in 1/10,000 of a second. The TIG mode is designed to detect the welding arc as low as 5 amps.