Welding Helmet fan pictures posted on metalworking dropbox.

Hi Glenn,

The file has been re-sent, and is included below for your convenience. Thank you for picking up on that snafu.

Guy

These pictures illustrate the integration of a Comair Rotron fan into a Speedglas welding helmet. The purpose is to cool the user's face and head. Also, the fan exhaust is directed downward and prevents condensation from depositing itself on the lens. Condensation often arises from the humid breath expelled from the weldor and can be a nuisance. It also has a cooling effect that is highly desirable during welding.

For those who perspire profusely, it is a welcomed relief.

Further benefits include the fact that greater proximity of the user's face is possible with the fan without causing excessive heating of the face, or fogging of the lens. This increased proximity also results in improved field of view. Incidentally, the stock headgear that comes with the Speedglas is not adjustable in proximity distance to the lens. Another harness was substituted to address this issue.

The reduction in heating and improved field of view reduced the need to remove, or flip the helmet to a vertical position. This improved productivity. Often, it was my experience that the helmet needed to be flipped just to cool off.

Due to the proximity of the headgear to the fan, caution must be exercised regarding hair length and placement. A couple of options exist, including using some screening, or simply paying attention to the hair and fan interaction.

The part number for digi-key is CR011-ND. The comair part number is CR0212LB-G70.

Illustrations included that of the fan and mounting bracket. As can be seen, the bracket was made from 16 gauge 316ss sheet. Some bends were required to conform to the limited space between the helmet elements and the headgear. The bracket could have been trimmed at the boss, but the weight savings was marginal.

To affix the bracket to the bosses, 6-32 button head cap screws were used. The bosses had to be tapped, and were pre-drilled to an adequate size.

The Speedglas helmet has two bosses located just above the lens. These bosses are no doubt used when the various accessories are added to the base helmet, likely involving the bulkier fan that attaches to the user and incorporates a filter, and some overhead gear to direct the air.

The screws used to hold the fan to the bracket are 4-40. The wires from the fan were routed using zip ties affixed to existing elements of the headgear and helmet.

The battery is affixed to the top headgear harness using a simple piece of innertube. The top band of the headgear is adjustable, and allows the inner tube section to be fitted easily. The 9V battery connector is from McMaster. A switch was not incorporated into this implementation to minimize component count. It is not really mandated since it is relatively easy to turn on and off by simply connecting and disconnecting the battery.

Battery duration is higher than anticipated when using the rated current consumed by the fan, and the amp-hour capacity of the battery. This is an interesting benefit. The inner tube section allows the battery to be easily changed, and is light weight. If the battery consumption were higher, a transformer might be advisable, but this would impact mobility.

If good ventilation isn't used, it is conceivable that the welding plume be entrained by the fan especially if the plume rises in proximity to the top of the helmet. This poses health risks. The risk may be equivalent to that of using the standard helmet in the same environment. No studies have been made on this matter. The user should bear this in mind as with all safety concerns.

Standard disclaimers apply.

Very cool. I have just one nitpick: would you mind resending the text file with hard carriage returns every 70 or 80 characters or so? I suspect that some of your text was truncated where it exceeds the browser line length... --Glenn Lyford

Awesome idea and job! I like it! I was thinking, inspired by your idea, of course, about mounting the fan on the headgear. Not sure how that would work, but you could be cooled the entire time, not just when you have the helmet down. Hmmmm....

HOw do i nav to the metal working drop box?

According to Blueraven :

click on the bar which takes you to the dropbox, and then navigate through the alphabetical list of files.

Enjoy, DoN.

Hi Carl,

Sounds like a great idea! The band already has the recessed holes for fastening the fuzzy stuff. I've ditched the fuzzy stuff since it seems to be an irritant, making the holes available. In looking over the pictures again, one can see how those dots can get connected, the headband, the fan. Nicely done.

An added benefit would be that there is no longer the transition of the wire from the headgear to the helmet. Flex points can be finicky, although they haven't been a factor so far.

The only concerns include flexure of the headband. Because the headband conforms to the forehead at that location, the fixture would likely need to flex to avoid discomfort. It is likely that the fixture will be made from some sort of plastic.

The fan is light enough so that it wouldn't cause undue stress on the relatively thin headband.

There seems to be enough clearance between the helmet and the headband.

Although full-time cooling is attractive, the heat seems to be felt only once the hood comes down. An interesting bit is that the cooling induced by the fan is so good that in one start/stop application I forgot to turn the fan back on, the residual cooling on my face prevented me from feeling the heat as before. I turned the fan back on before heating became an issue again.

It is foreseeable that a welding shop in the summer would make full-time cooling an attractive option.

If you give it a try, post the results.

Best regards,

Guy

Um. That is to say:

Extremely cool, Guy!

--Winston