New! Griffin Glass Tools IR/UV Defense Shade The one and only infrared (IR) and ultraviolet (UV) reducing shade with a stainless steel frame that protects your face from the damaging effects of light and heat while flameworking. IR and UV exposure causes long term damage to your skin cells and eyes. The unsightly red color that your skin takes on through long term exposure to your flame is the effect of IR and UV exposure. The shade also keeps your immediate working area cooler, making for a more comfortable environment. The shade is a 4” by 6” borosilicate plate with a stainless steel frame to protect the edges of the glass. The IR/UV Defense shade is adjustable to heights between 4” and 13” to accommodate all torches and flameworkers. The angle of the shield is fully and easily adjustable as well. Available in two bench mounting designs; the Bench Plate design slides conveniently under your torch and screws down to your work surface, and the Bench Clamp style which has a 2.5” range and can clamp to your bench, torch or both. As IR light is not the only hazard to your eyes the Griffin Glass IR/UV Defense Shade should always be used in conjunction with proper flameworking eyewear.
	New! Bench Plate IR/UV Defense Shade $99.00
	New! Bench Clamp IR/UV Defense Shade $99.00

More Safety Information about IR and UV exposure:

Infrared Radiation (IR)
The skin and eyes absorb infrared radiation (IR) as heat. Workers normally notice excessive exposure through heat sensation and pain. Sources of IR radiation include furnaces, heat lamps, and IR lasers.

Ultraviolet Radiation (UV)
Ultraviolet radiation (UV) has a high photon energy range and is particularly hazardous because there are usually no immediate symptoms of excessive exposure. Sources of UV radiation include the sun, black lights, welding arcs, and UV lasers.

http://www.osha.gov/SLTC/radiation_nonionizing/index.html

 

Radiation

Glass workers are also subjected to a less obvious hazard due to the intense visible, ultraviolet (UV) and infrared (IR) radiation that emanates from melting furnaces, gloryholes and flameworking burners. UV radiation has a shorter wavelength than visible light, and can cause sunburn-like damage to your eyes (as well as your skin); this type of burn is signaled by pain like a headache behind the eyes. IR radiation has a longer wavelength than visible light, and can cause deep general burns. "Glass makers' cataracts" are the well-known result of radiation damage to the lens of the eye, caused primarily by the IR radiation.

As the temperature of a hot source increases, the damage caused by radiation increases much more rapidly; even a small increase in temperature can make an important difference. The intensity if radiation increases with the fourth power of the temperature. The wavelength at the maximum intensity is inversely proportional to the absolute temperature, so higher temperatures mean a larger proportion of the total energy is UV intensity: oxygen/gas flames may be nearly invisible, but are strong sources of IR radiation. The yellow "flare" seen both in the flameworker's burner and in melting furnaces is the result of a strong emission in the visible by sodium in the flame; it may obscure your view, but it is not necessarily accompanied by IR or UV radiation.

Protective Eyewear

Protective lenses are available which will absorb most of the UV and IR radiation. A dark green lens with strong IR absorption, like those used for gas welding, gives the best protection, but it makes it difficult to judge color temperature during working - these are most useful for gathering, charging, or doing other prolonged work in the melter or gloryhole. This type of lens is widely available at automotive and welding supply stores; they are relatively inexpensive. The absorption power of these green lenses is designated by "shade" numbers which increase with darker glasses: Shade 4 or 5 is dark enough for melters with soda-lime glasses (up to Shade 15 might be used for electric welding).

Good quality green sunglasses are similar to these welding glasses. Cheap sunglasses may be worse than no protection, since they may absorb in the visible, causing your pupils to open, but may not absorb the UV or IR.

Lenses designed specifically for glass makers also absorb the sodium flare - these are the "didymium" glasses, in which the rare earths neodymium and praseodymium absorb most of the sodium yellow radiation, but only a part of the near UV and very little of the IR. For flameworkers, lenses are available that absorb well in the IR and UV, but still have good transmission in the visible to see small details. The combination of didymium with the UV and IR absorbing welding glasses gives the best protection for melter and gloryhole use.

http://www.glassalchemy.com/index.php/resources/user-manual/safety