Since the demand for welding is growing, there is more opportunity now than ever before, and better pay as a result, as well. While you won’t be sitting comfortably in a chair all day, you’ll have an interesting hands-on profession which is also very rewarding. But in order to be a successful welder, you need to have all your protective gear ready and a helmet is a piece of must-have protective equipment when welding.

Which Welding Helmet is Best

Viewing Area

The size of the viewing area of a full face welding helmet can make or break your welding experience. The smaller that area is the smaller your field of view will be. If you often weld out of position, then you should search for a helmet with a wide viewing area. There are quality welding helmets Australia wide that come with a wide viewing area of around 10cm wide.

Lens

The lens of the viewing window on the helmet needs to have a good level of clarity so you can see everything as it is. This clarity is rated with a score from 1 to 3 with a 1/ 1/ 1/ 1 score being the perfect viewing clarity. But even if that’s not the score of the helmet you’re considering, you can still go for one that doesn’t include a 3 in its score.

Shade

While viewing clarity and shade levels can contradict themselves you can still get a helmet for welding that can give you both great viewing clarity and protection too. For this, you should get a helmet with different levels of darkness. You’ll want versatility in shade options so you are able to work out on a bright sunny day, as well as indoors without having to worry whether or not your sight will be protected.

Auto-Darkening

There is a feature that more and more welding helmets Australia wide come available with, and that is the auto-darkening mode. This feature darkens the lens when you start welding and the darkness adjusts according to the environment you’re in. The lens itself automatically detects the light produced by the welding process and it adjusts the level of darkness that provides the best clarity and protection.

Grind Mode

But sometimes, you need a helmet for welding that just provides protection and doesn’t block out light. Like when you’re using an angle grinder, for example. Welders use angle grinders to smoothen out the areas where two pieces will get joined. This is commonly done when prepping the surfaces for welding. Many helmets come with a feature called grind mode which is activated by a press of a button.

This turns off the auto-darkening feature and provides protection from flying sparks and nothing more. This way, you don’t have to spend money on buying a mask and you don’t take off your helmet whenever you’ll need to use an angle grinder.

Power Source

To make all these features possible though, your helmet needs a power source. There are two options you can go for when it comes to a full face welding helmet – solar or lithium. A solar-powered welding helmet is one that only relies on the sun for power. But if you work indoors, or if the weather where you live or work is unfavourable for days on end, you’ll want something more reliable.

Welding helmets with lithium batteries are known for their reliability since you don’t depend on the sun at all. You can use this type of welding helmet both outdoors and indoors without a worry, but you must always carry a spare battery pack. For the best solution, you can get the best of both worlds, a helmet that can be powered by both solar power and lithium batteries.

When the batteries go out, the sun has your back, but if there is no sun for the day or if it’s too cold to work outside, then the batteries have your back. Either way, you’re covered and you don’t have to worry about running out of juice for your helmet. Also, solar power helmets with an auto-darkening have a feature called auto-off. What this does is turn off the auto-darkening feature so that the helmet doesn’t use up as much power. Auto-darkening needs constant access to power so when it detects the light of the arc it immediately adjust the darkness of the lens.

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When it comes to welding, there are several hazards of which you need to be aware. The most common injuries amongst welders are burns from hot metals or from the weld spatter. Welders can also suffer injuries due to electric shock or arc rays. To minimise all of these potential risks, there’s specialised welder’s personal protective equipment that typically includes protection for your eyes and your face, ear protection, protective clothing to guard your body against burns, like long sleeve jacket and long pants, welding sleeves, gloves, high boots. It may also include an apron, a cape, a respirator, etc.

Face, Eyes and Ear Protection

During a welding job, the worker should constantly protect their face and their eyes from harmful radiation. So, it goes without saying that the first thing you need to think about is finding the right welder’s safety equipment exactly for these parts of your body. In the welding industry you can get many different types of personal protective equipment for your face and eyes, depending on your preferences, your needs and, of course, your budget. Welding helmets, hand shield, welding goggles, safety glasses. They protect against radiation, irritation and chemical burns, flying particles and debris, sparks and intense light.

While working, you should also be wearing ear protection at all times. Earplugs can protect you from loud noise, which can not only cause ringing in years, but it can in time affect your hearing. However, while you should be wearing earplugs at all times, they are not going to protect your ears from sparks or splatter. For this, you’ll need ear muffs. You could also wear a headset to protect your hearing, and it can even come with AM/FM radio functionality. Furthermore, you could also get additional neck, throat and ears protection from spatter, attachable to your helmet for instance.

Lungs Protection

When you are working you can breathe in a number of harmful fumes and gases, which can lead to serious health issues, such as metallic oxides, fluorides, silicates, paint, solvents, rust inhibitors and many other dangers. This is why it’s vital for the facility where you work to be ventilated, but even more importantly why you should get protective gear for your lungs. There are different industrial safety supplies when it comes to lung protection, including face masks with filters against odours, different types of welding air-purifying respirators etc. For more convenience and protection, you can also get a welding helmet that features a respirator.

Protective Workwear

To protect your body from burns and radiation you’ll need to get several pieces of industrial workwear and safety gear. This will include several clothing items, as well as gloves, safety shoes and other accessories. Your protective clothes should always be dry while you are working because wet clothes increase the possibility of an electric shock.

For your upper body, you’ll need to get a safety jacket and shirts. Welding jackets are designed to be temperature resistant, to protect your body from heat and burns. They are typically made from cotton and leather. For instance, shirts often have cotton body for comfort, and leather sleeves for protection.

Furthermore, like your face and eyes, while you are welding your arms and hands are exposed to a lot of dangers, including heat, sparks, debris, etc. Fortunately, safety equipment suppliers produce very convenient personal protective gear for your upper extremities. Designed to protect your arms, welding sleeves can prevent sparks, spatter and hot debris to come in contact with your skin. Along with gloves and the welding jacket, they protect your hand and arm skin from heat, burns and fires. Gloves also protect you from electric shock.

For extra protection, you can get an apron and a cape. Capes can offer additional protection for your shoulders and your arms, while welding aprons cover the area from the chest to the knee. You should also protect your legs and your feet against the same hazards: heat, sparks, burns, radiation etc. For this, you need protective leggings or pants, made of denim, cotton or leather. You should also protect your feet with temperature resistant safety boots with rubber soles and ideally with lace covers. For extra protection you can get leather shields that you can slip on or over your shoes, to stop sparks and spatter.

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That being said, having some basic understanding before you buy welding equipment can be essential in making the right purchase, which will give you the best value for the money you spend on it. Learning about the different type of welders will help you be more efficient and produce better welding results. The three different types of welders are TIG, MIG and arc/stick.

TIG Welders

TIG welding is the most aesthetically pleasing and cleanest welding style. It’s ideal for welding thin metals because it’s a very accurate welding technique that requires no cleaning afterward. TIG welders use plasma to join the metals together and argon to protect the weld from contaminants. However, TIG welding is a rather slow process, but you get quality, accurate and aesthetically pleasing results. TIG welding requires quite a lot of practice to master, but if you’re dedicated it’s totally worth it.

MIG Welders

MIG welders are the most beginner-friendly welding machines as they’re easy to learn, and are very quick. Moreover, they’re also clean and aesthetically pleasing while producing powerful joints even on thin metals. However, they don’t perform well in windy conditions and on rusty and dirty metal. But there are flux-cored welders which are an iteration of MIG welders and those are much better at joining rusty and dirty metals together.

Arc/Stick Welders

Arc/Stick welding is the most commonly used welding style by most welders. The main reason for that is the fact that they are capable of fusing even the thickest of metals relatively easy, which can be very appreciated in most industrial settings. The second reason is that they’re incredibly stable, and can easily work their way around dirt and dust and even windy environments. However, as is the case with other welding techniques, arc/stick welding also has disadvantages. For starters, it’s difficult to learn because the rods need to be changed often, and they’re high-maintenance. Moreover, they produce a lot of sparks, so it’s easy to get burned as a beginner. And lastly, the metal weld needs to be polished and cleaned after the welding is performed.

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