An extern laser ready warning lamp - Requirements and realization

Abstract

The official accident insurance in Germany requires the installation of warning lamps at rooms, in which class 4 laser products operate. The purpose of this lamp is to inform a person going to enter the laser room about the risk. In industrial applications the entering of the laser area usually interrupts the laser emission by door interlock. This, however, is not practicable in most medical laser treatment rooms. Therefore the warning lamp in medical environments should meet the requirement, to inevitably warn a person about the entering of the room during laser treatment and the use of protection means like goggles etc.This paper presents a concept of a Laser Ready Warning Lamp for medical applications, which meets this requirement by the following characteristics:As an example, the extern Laser Ready Warning Lamp, as installed at the University Hospital Hamburg Eppendorf, is demonstrated. Alternative ways to trigger the Laser Ready Warning Lamp are discussed. It turned out that various laser companies prepare their models with respective circuitry. The requirement to contact the Standby/Ready signal of medical lasers to the interlock socket should be suggested as amendment to the standard IEC 601-2-22.The official accident insurance in Germany requires the installation of warning lamps at rooms, in which class 4 laser products operate. The purpose of this lamp is to inform a person going to enter the laser room about the risk. In industrial applications the entering of the laser area usually interrupts the laser emission by door interlock. This, however, is not practicable in most medical laser treatment rooms. Therefore the warning lamp in medical environments should meet the requirement, to inevitably warn a person about the entering of the room during laser treatment and the use of protection means like goggles etc.This paper presents a concept of a Laser Ready Warning Lamp for medical applications, which meets this requirement by the following characteristics:As an example, the extern Laser Ready Warning Lamp, as installed at the University Hospital Hamburg Eppendorf, is demonstrated. Alternative ways to trigger the Laser Ready Warning Lamp are discussed. It turned out that various laser companies ...