BUY DECENT EYEPRO!

[BrightCandle]

Can even be unlucky with good stuff, I've got a TM mask (fanboi lol) and this sunday somehow a BB managed to get inside my mask when i got sprayed in the face at close-range, no idea how! Start walking back to the spawn a feel a rattle, i assumed abit of mask had broken off inside it of so got a marshall to escort me back to the safe-zone to verify the state of the mask and find it's a BB, and absolutely no damage to the mask!!!

 

There's only a couple tiny vents in near the nose and they aren't wide enough for a BB, there's no gaps around the edges when wearing it so gawd knows how it got there!

 

There are plenty of materials in the mask that flex, like the foam around the mask contouring to your face or the plastic gaps. Given enough energy you can force a BB through and get inside. It will have lost almost all its energy in the process but its still disconcerting when it happens.

 

I had an odd moment with my desert locusts where I saw a BB coming right for my eye and when it hit I felt it. I went straight to a marshall who checked and found no holes and it turns out it was just the pressure wave from the BB hitting the polycarbonate and flexing it. We are talking about high amounts of pressure here, a lot of careful testing must be done to ensure they work as they should and in all directions and in all the sealing locations.

[Colonel Kurtz]

That must have felt proper freaky! Yeah must be something like that, I'm just happy the mask took it without breaking/cracking in any manner and nothing ended up in my eye!

[Lozart]

I had a BB get inside my ESS Advancers once. God knows how it happened but there you go. The point is that the lenses won't perforate if hit directly.

[TheGrover]

 

Of course you can. That's the whole point of quality control and testing to an established standard. Or are you suggesting that soldiers should stick a couple of rounds into their kevlar just to make sure?

 

The main point remains though, don't buy cheap crap. Get your eyepro from a reputable manufacturer that carries the correct relevant standards (be they CE or ANSI) because they have had to perform rigorous evaluation tests and will have to have documented, validated ongoing production batch testing to maintain that standard.

No QC reigime is perfect, and the one in a thousand or one in a million products that is defective (note that both of those are reasonable tolerances in some applications) might end up in your kit bag, and let you down when you need it.

 

However, the main point of my original post has been missed:

 

EN 166 F IS NOT ENOUGH FOR AIRSOFT

 

A cheap pair of goggles meeting 166 f will not be designed or tested to the standards that you need

 

Im not sure about the American equivalent.

 

Unless your eye pro is 166 B (goggles and masks only are allowed this), or it has been tested AND certified to an acceptable standard (ie at least 2.5j impact rated) then you NEED TO TEST YOUR EYEPRO, BECAUSE UNTIL YOU DO, NOBODY HAS

 

So, for clarity:

 

EN 166 F IS NOT GOOD ENOUGH

 

Seriously, how much effort does it take to test them?

[Lozart]

First off yes, you are absolutely correct EN 166F does not give sufficient protection for airsoft use. For those that aren't aware, the test uses a 0.86g steel ball at 45m/s which equates to 0.87Joules. Working that back it equates to a 0.2g BB at only 306FPS which as I'm sure we're all aware won't guarantee protection against anything on the airsoft field. For all of us that will respond with "but mine are fine" then...well, you've been lucky. Most strikes aren't at point blank range so the actual energy WILL be less than your muzzle velocity but still it's quite a chance to take.

 

EN 166 B DOES give sufficient impact protection but is only applicable to goggles (or similar)

 

STANAG 2920 and ANSI Z87.1 also offer sufficient impact protection protection. Bolle Tactical http://www.bolle-tactical.com/ are currently the only manufacturer to offer STANAG certified products across both goggles and spectacles. Swiss Eye Tactical also offer a range of ballistic glasses. Worth noting that while ESS do suggest that their products are fine for airsoft use (in fact they offer airsoft specific products like the cortex clip) they are not suitable for paintball (should you be that way inclined).

 

This is quite a useful reference for eye protection: http://www.airsoftnews.fr/wp-content/uploads/2010/11/EN-Safety-Standards-and-Protective-Eyewear.pdf

 

It's worth bearing in mind though that these standards do not state how many impacts these lenses should be able to withstand.

 

With regards to having to test your own eyepro though, again I'm sorry but I have to call into question your reasoning here. Yes, you're right QC systems are not infallible but in industries like the production of personal protection equipment they are incredibly stringent. Spot and batch testing using validated, calibrated systems and production quarantining all but guarantee that the products that ship out WILL meet the standards they are sold to. I come back to the point I made in my previous post - if you buy decent eye protection from a reputable company the 1) they will exceed the impact energy likely to be experienced in airsoft and 2) they WILL have been designed and tested thoroughly before being released for sale and continuously through ongoing production.

 

Feel free to continue testing your own eyewear if you really feel the need to but if you're buying sufficiently well made products then you really are wasting your time and potentially decreasing the lifespan of the product.