Handheld Laser Welding: The Safety Standards Haven’t Caught Up Yet

Handheld laser welding is growing fast across the manufacturing industry, and for good reason — it offers speed and flexibility that traditional welding often can’t match. But the technology is developing faster than the safety regulations built to govern it, and that gap deserves attention.

A handheld laser welder is a Class 4 laser device, and needs to be treated accordingly. Modern machines include technical safety features that greatly reduce the risk of direct beam exposure, but that doesn’t fully resolve the safety question. Reflected and diffuse laser radiation during welding remains a real risk — both to the operator and to anyone working nearby.

Clear standards already exist for laser products, laser shielding, and eye protection in general. What’s still missing is a simple, EU-wide standard specifically for laser-resistant welding gloves and protective clothing. Regular welding gloves and workwear are not automatically laser-resistant, and there is currently no official European framework that lets a manufacturer demonstrate that a specific glove or garment offers adequate protection against laser radiation.

This isn’t a small gap. Without clear standards, distributors and end-users have no simple way to compare products or confirm that PPE marketed as “laser-safe” actually performs as claimed.

At Weldas, we’re not waiting passively for that framework to arrive. We’re actively testing different material combinations and construction methods against laser exposure, working to understand what genuinely offers protection versus what merely claims to. At the same time, we believe it’s important to be transparent: until an official legal framework and EU-recognized testing standard exist, no manufacturer — including us — can make an absolute, certified claim of “laser-proof” PPE.

Our approach is simple: don’t overpromise, keep testing, and follow the regulatory process closely so that when official standards are published, we’re ready to meet them from day one.

In the meantime, we recommend a cautious, layered approach for anyone working with handheld lasers: include laser welding explicitly in your workplace risk assessment, physically shield the work area to protect bystanders, and use eye protection matched to the specific wavelength of your laser — not just a standard welding helmet.

We’ll continue sharing updates as testing and regulation progress. Handheld laser welding has real potential — our job is to make sure the protective equipment keeps pace with it.