Current status of U.S., European and international laser safety standards and the concept of horizontal & vertical standards Available to Purchase

There are presently several laser standards that apply to the manufacturer or user of laser products and products or subassemblies incorporating lasers. There are substantive differences in some of these standards, and only minor differences in others. It is those differences that pose a challenge to the designers of laser products to ensure that the product complies with the requirements of all the applicable standards in the projected markets. This paper presents an overview of many of the current standards, and describes some of the relatively new activity to develop additional standards in the international arena. The emphasis in this presentation is on U.S., global international, and European regional international standards. Figures 1&2 are attachments that illustrate the flow of the European Standards activity described in this paper.