About us

Laser, LED & Lamp Safety

Laser, LED and Lamp Safety

 

The laser, LED and lamp safety department was established in 1994 and soon afterwards we could achieve accreditation as test house. Our team currently consists of six specialists in the field of laser safety as well as LED and lamp safety. All team members have either an MSc, MEng, or a PhD. 

Our internationally acclaimed know-how is based on

  • active participation in standardisation and
  • bioeffects research


This combination of standardisation work and research is an internationally unique basis for providing testing services also of complex sources as well as consulting on the application of the standards and on the risk for injury. Our level of expertise is demonstrated by over 100 publications, many of them are available in the download section.

Our senior consultant, Karl Schulmeister PhD, co-author of the reference handbook “Laser Safety”, has made major contributions to the development of the following standards and guidelines for more than 20 years:

  • laser-safety standard IEC 60825-1 (in Europe: EN 60825-1)
  • safety standard for lamps IEC 62471 (CIE S009, EN 62471)
  • ICNIRP laser exposure limits
  • ICNIRP limits for broadband radiation
     

The results of our research projects have contributed considerably to the development of today’s test procedures of the IEC 60825-1 (for example classification relative to simple reference points or at the most restrictive position, abolishment of Condition 2, determination of alpha for complex apparent source patterns), as well as to the improvement of the international safety limits for lasers as well as LEDs and lamps (for instance time dependent alpha-max, simplified rules for pulsed exposures). 

For our clients, this commitment has the advantage that we have an exclusive ”first-hand“ background knowledge of the two main IEC safety standards and safety limits, as well as injury thresholds at our disposal. Our continuing heavy investment in research and development has resulted in specially developed source characterisation tools and measurement procedures, for instance to determine the most restrictive position and apparent source. Our measurement equipment complies with the highest standards, for instance our double monochromator spectrometers were approved by COLIPA for solar simulator testing.

Organisation wise our team is integrated in the division ”EMC & Optics“ of Seibersdorf Laboratories (Home Seibersdorf Laboratories).