Apparently, lasers are either a food or drug now.

[Zofryer]

I think a lot of you are missing the point. No crap lasers are dangerous when they get more powerful. No crap you shouldn't let people with questionable intelligence and motivations have them. The point was, what the hell is the FDA doing regulating lasers? Are they the China police now? Are the Boyscouts of America in charge of approving parade floats? Does the Federal Housing Authority conduct aircraft safety testing now?

 

[Ridewithme38]

I agree Zofry! At what point does a laser pointer become dangerous? I understand this whole government thing "Restrict all of us to protect the least of us" but it seems silly with a 50mW laser!

from some quick Google searches it looks like you can pull a strong enough laser out of a DVD Burner from your computer to start forest fire....

 

[Draco]

Mini Lock

On that page they sort of explain the fact of lasers with the FDA, or fo those not wanting to read.

Where other laser companies sacrificed design in order to comply with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration�s (FDA) Center for devices and Radiological Health (CDRH) regulations in the manufacture of lasers and laser devices and ended up with dangling keys or wires sticking out of the laser barrel, Wicked Lasers has come up with its very own patented innovation in laser safety with the MiniLock™.

So Guessing it has something to do with the DE ones not having 'locks'

 

[DaMulta]

Hell you can take a lazer out of a DVD burner, and make a lazer pointer with it that will cut plastic....

 

[TnA]

Mini Lock

On that page they sort of explain the fact of lasers with the FDA, or fo those not wanting to read.



So Guessing it has something to do with the DE ones not having 'locks'

I think you might have just answered Zof's point (in a round-about fashion). According to that information, the FDA has jurisdiction due to radiological health concerns.

 

[framitz]

If the FAA was against them that would make some sense, but the FDA? Chinglish is suspect.

 

[ramblingrose]

The point was, what the hell is the FDA doing regulating lasers?

At 5mW it can burn the retina and cause irreparable damage. More powerful units can burn skin. These issues are enough to allow FDA involvement. And something that should sound familiar... a lot are made in China and sold online. Surprise, surprise, they don't all have the mandated safety features.

 

[abudman]

CFR - Code of Federal Regulations Title 21

Here is the list of regulations on Lasers from the FDA, I'm at work so don't have time to go through it all.

 

[chrisl317]

So are you saying it is because they are really protecting us?



_

No not us, them. The one thing is that the U.S. military is notorious for when leaving an area of operation or conflict or war, is that they leave behind an awful lot of stuff. The gov't wouldn't want to have to admit that something got blown-up in country by thier own munitions. Remember when we helped out the Afghans when they were fighting the Russians? I'd be winning to bet they still have an awful lot of stingers stashed. We aren't the only country in the world with "Rocket" scientists either. Add reverse-engineering, money and organization, and I have no doubt a laser-guided missle can be made and launched. Plus, military bases here in the U.S. lose things all the time. I was at Camp Pendleton in the early 80's and I remember someone lost an M-16. The whole base got locked down. Never found out if they found it though.

 

[TnA]

Chinglish is suspect.

yeah...so's my konglish.

 

[TnA]

Plus, military bases here in the U.S. lose things all the time. I was at Camp Pendleton in the early 80's and I remember someone lost an M-16. The whole base got locked down. Never found out if they found it though.

Hey! We don't lose things all the time!! 8-o We just seem to misplace them....that's why we shut down bases or make them stay out in the field all day/night/week/month...so we can find the "misplaced" item.

 

[Angela]

I'm guessing you won't be having too many mobile discos with laser light shows in the US in the future then!!! 8-o

 

[TnA]

mobile discos? what the heck is that? and people still listen to disco?! 8-o

 

[Angela]

Not entirely sure whether or not your reply was serious or not, but a mobile disco and mobile DJ are normally used for functions (eg weddings, birthday parties, etc). Kit is assembled at the venue and dismantled at the end of the night.

 

[killdozerd11]

When i was saying that these lasers ain't jack is because we had a 1 watt laser that was the alignment for the 50 watt CO2 laser that we cut composites with on the cnc set up
that was in the 90's and we were still using mirrors

And just before i left the company they were looking at a 1KW YAG laser that ran through a fiber optic

So excuse me if i am a little out of date but you can build your own CO2 laser they are not that complicated

Sold state lasers which are culminated LED'S compared to these are just toys
Now i have not been around them as of late but you would have to show me a solid state laser that would cut or drill anything serious

 

[TnA]

Not entirely sure whether or not your reply was serious or not, but a mobile disco and mobile DJ are normally used for functions (eg weddings, birthday parties, etc). Kit is assembled at the venue and dismantled at the end of the night.

LOL....it was a little of both. I understand mobile DJ.

 

[Applejackson]

Outside of America nightclubs are still called discos or discoteques, while here in the states "disco" is usually only used when talking about the music style/genre.

 

[trog100]

for the record the eye is twenty time more sensitively to the green ones than the red ones..

they look impressive at night like light sabre things.. the red ones put a spot on things the green ones shine a clearly visible beam at night for miles..

quite dangerous things in the wrong hands if not used with extreme care....

trog

 

[TnA]

ayep! you could put an eye out with one of these things! 8-o

actually, lasers on the battlefield is a weapon that has been discussed/worked on for over a decade. for a while, the focus for us in the military was protecting ourselves against lasers and we had to wear some pretty annoying "laser-protection" eye-wear. Now, laser protection has been superceded by ballistic protection.....so....we still have to wear annoying eye-wear.

 

[chrisl317]

ayep! you could put an eye out with one of these things! 8-o

actually, lasers on the battlefield is a weapon that has been discussed/worked on for over a decade. for a while, the focus for us in the military was protecting ourselves against lasers and we had to wear some pretty annoying "laser-protection" eye-wear. Now, laser protection has been superceded by ballistic protection.....so....we still have to wear annoying eye-wear.

Do a google on "Directed Energy Weapons". You'll see the Air Force is very much involved in using high energy lasers in the battfiled and in the air. Just watched a show on this the other day on the Military Channel.