Transparency of PET plastics and eye-safety

There are measurable parameters of optical materials that must be laboratory tested. Haze, percentage of light transmission, light diffusion. The responsible producer must provide the information. Only such transparent PET plastics can provide the safe for our eyes protection. We must always ask about confirmed in proper documents parameters of a product. In order to provide eye-safety instead of danger. Ikonos Ultra Clear is certified for Personal Eye Protection EN 167:2001. This foil has super-high light transmission and minimal haze. In addition it is both side coated to get antistatic and antifog properties.

Do NOT use sunglasses, smoked glass, X-ray film or dark plastics for direct Sun observation.

Let me start from a short story from the different field. Whenever an eclipse happens, there is an increase of people getting to hospitals. The reason they need to see a doctor is that they have some problem with their sight. Sometimes it is mild harm, but sometimes much more serious eye-damage. Of course it is a consequence of observing an eclipse. Let’s always remember that even if filtered by the Moon and the atmosphere, our Sun sends a lot of energy to the Earth’s surface! Underestimation of this fact can certainly bring us into real trouble. This is why we must properly prepare to observe this beautiful phenomenon.

What is really interesting here? The fact that many of observers do prepare. The practice is to smoke a piece of glass to create a filter coating on it. This improvised tool should protect an eye from sun-burn. It should, but it doesn’t. It can do even more harm due to behavior of the pupil. We all know about pupil dilatation when we are in the darkness, right? Thanks to that an eye can receive more light. While we are looking through dark glass, our eye reacts like it was in the dark. Therefore, it allows more light. This is the worst setup when we look directly at the Sun! So do NOT use sunglasses, polaroid filters, smoked glass, exposed color film, X-ray film, or photographic neutral density filters!

the standard for Personal Eye Protection EN 167:2001

It is obligatory to check if the item we use is really safe for our eyes. Always! Whether it is glasses, binoculars or transparent foil. The damage to sight can easily turn to be permanent. This is why we should demand certificates of safety. They confirm that the product is produced accordingly to established standards. And these are strict when it comes to optics. In example Ikonos Ultra Clear is used in face shield applications and fulfils the optical requirements set for in the standard for Personal Eye Protection EN 167:2001.

Visors and personal face protection shields became very popular during COVID-19 epidemy. It is certainly understandable. They do not hide a face. Also, don’t constrain sight angle. Secondly, they create the very efficient barrier. And in addition, they are easy to maintain and disinfect. Everything is great as long as the shield is made from proper PET film. Just because something appears to be transparent, don’t automatically make it suitable for optical usage.

Which transparent PET plastics can provide the safe for our eyes protection

There are measurable parameters of optical materials that must be laboratory tested. Haze, percentage of light transmission, light diffusion. The responsible producer must provide such information. Only such transparent PET plastics can provide the safe for our eyes protection. There is no need to write more, why the eye-safety is important. However, it must be pointed out, that there are also other important aspects of it. Even if some uncertified transparent PET plastic does not put the vision at risk, it may cause fast fatigue of sight. This is counterproductive.

Every personal protection must always be certified for safety. The situation when a protection causes more damage is not uncommon. It shouldn’t be so. In order to it, we must always ask about confirmed in proper documents parameters of a product.

Ikonos Ultra Clear is for face shield applications and it fulfils the optical requirements set forth in the standard for Personal Eye Protection EN 167:2001. This high-quality transparent PET plastic has superb physical and optical parameters. It is great base-product for many applications. The foil has super high light transmission and minimal haze. In addition it is both side coated to get antistatic and antifog properties.