Workshop addresses safety legislation of LED lighting products

Since the launch of the Photonics Cluster (UK)’s Practical Light and Colour Measurement course in January 2005, the PC(UK) team says that it has been inundated with enquiries from concerned manufacturers of LED lamps and arrays seeking understand the potential risk of serious eye injuries caused by high-brightness LEDs.

In response, PC(UK) has initiated a new one-day LED Safety Workshop, which will be held on September 21, 2006 in Birmingham, UK.

The workshop will review how to safely measure and hence optimise LED product designs, in order to maximise the safety of products incorporating single LEDs or LED arrays.

A chief characteristic of the latest generation of LED devices is their extreme brightness, which for many products can be sufficient to cause a considerable degree of discomfort and concern for even momentary viewing. Unfortunately, the issue of the optical radiation safety of such devices is surrounded by uncertainty and to some extent controversy, with disagreement on whether the LED should be treated in a similar manner to a laser source, or alternatively as a lamp or lamp system.

Accordingly this hands-on workshop considers how LED safety should be addressed within the context of the two main international standards on laser and LED safety: IEC 60825-1:2001 "Safety of Laser Products" and CIE 009/E:2002 "Photobiological Safety of Lamps and Lamp Systems".

The course will emphasize and clarify to system designers, engineers and product managers the various terms and parameters needed to define LED safety, and the measurement methods that are available to address the optical radiation hazard of an LED source. Specific details are listed below.

The Practical Light and Colour Measurement Course and the new LED Safety Workshop will run consecutively on September 20 and 21, 2006. To reserve your place on one or both courses, and to claim your LEDs Magazine 10% Readers Discount, please contact Hannah on +44(0)121 – 2606020 or email [email protected] and quote ref #LS2106.

LED Safety Workshop – course details

The course combining theory and practical sessions includes the following sections:

1) Optical Radiation Hazards - reviews the damage mechanisms by which optical radiation can cause injuries to eye and skin, and introduces the concept of maximum permissible exposure (MPE) limits

2) LED Beam Properties – reviews LED output properties, including photometric versus radiometric units, beam divergence and source subtense

3) LED & Laser Safety Analysis - reviews how an LED should be analysed if it is treated as a LASER source, including classification against the international laser standard scheme; the key concepts of Accessible Emission Limit (AEL) and Nominal Ocular Hazard Distance (NOHD) are also introduced

4) LED & Lamp Safety Anaylsis - reviews how an LED should be analysed as if it were a conventional lamp, including exposure limits and action spectra

5) Practical Hazard Analysis Workshop – a hands-on evaluation of LED sources in accordance with the laser and lamp safety standards and comparison of LED source output with applicable classification and exposure limits

6) LED Arrays - reviews how the output of an array of LED devices should be analysed from the optical radiation safety viewpoint

Who should attend

Engineers and technicians who are working with high brightness LED devices in research and product development applications. It is essential that managers, directors and owners of organisations also understand the implications of high brightness LED-based products.