Pancake hoods are round-shaped shields that are designed to protect your face from the welding machine. Pipe welders most frequently use the pancake hoods since most of the welding is external. However, we are going to give you 10 reasons why you need a pancake welding hood.
The pancake is a unique helmet that helps you weld outside in the direct sunlight without affecting your work or any other thing. It also shields you well from sparks, splash, and dust. Even more, you can customize the helmet to best fit you for efficiency and protection
However, below, we will give you reasons why you should have your pancake welding hood.
10 reasons why you need pancake welding hood
Below are features that the pancake helmet offers and will provide you with efficiency as well as comfort.
- Comfort
The pancake welding hood offers a unique set of comfort for the welders. The most obvious of all is that a welder can weld comfortably in the sun without worry. The helmet will obstruct the sun, and you can barely feel it on your face.
The helmet also allows you to breathe with ease without struggling. Unlike the other helmet, the pancake helmet only holds your eyes tightly and will enable you to have free gaseous exchange while protecting you from harmful fumes.
The helmet is made from lightweight materials that allow you to struggle less while welding. While in the sun, you need all the energy you have without falling into fatigue. The helmet is lightweight, allowing you to complete it with ease.
Your eyes are surrounded by wood because wood is a poor conductor of heat, and also it feels good on the skin. The wood is molded perfectly to your face allowing it to fit perfectly. The perfect fit reduces any pressure that can hurt your face and cause any discomfort.
It’s also preventing any sparks that may be directed to your eye. This will ensure you comfortably complete your work. Additionally, the irritation usually caused by the sparks and spatters flying is no longer a threat to the pancake hood. - Easy to breath
While working in the sun, breathing with ease is essential since you have to keep your body cool and reduce fatigue. However, the regular helmet does not permit this. When you have the flip helmet on, you will have to remove it once in a while to grasp for some air.
Also, when you breathe while in a flip helmet on a sunny day, you will notice that you can’t see clearly since there is a formation of mist on your glasses. This will slow down your work and performance while working.
However, that is not the case for the pipe welders who use the pancake hoodie. The hood provides berthing comfort like no other. The mouth and the nose are completely covered from the eyes so that while you’re breathing, you cannot blur the glass and affect visibility.
Also, there is enough space between the front shield and the nose, allowing adequate breathing outside on a sunny day. - Weight
The weight of the pancake helmet is impressive. 75% of the pancake helmet is made out of balsa wood. Balsa wood is found in Ecuador, imported by manufacturing companies to make the pancake helmet.
The balsa wood has properties that make it suitable for making the pancake helmet in that it is soft and lightweight. The softness allows the users to customize the pancake helmet to the suitable shapes to fit your face.
The lightweight properties allow you to work through the sun without fatigue. It also allows you to work throughout without removing the helmet, which could lead to other risks. - Prevents damage to the eye
While welding using electricity to join two pipes. The welding types of equipment generate sufficient heat to melt the metal, and then they cool down to form a joint. It uses electric power sources, which creates a spark between the base metal and the electrode to melt the metal.
When the electric arc is triggered, there is a bright light release that can damage your cornea. The cornea of your eye becomes inflamed and burned, which causes excruciating pain later in the day.
The use of a pancake helmet protects you from this painful experience. Additionally, it helps cover the entire eyes preventing any chance of the flash damaging your cornea or any other part of the eye. Extensive exposure of the cornea to this light and the Ultra Violet Radiation can cause you to go bling.
This is not possible since the sun’s rays always cover your face at all times. Pancake helmets with their special glass offer protection from the flesh and sparks while in the sun. Keeping the retina away from the explosion helps prevent you from losing vision temporarily or permanently and preventing cornea inflammation.
It is advised that since the helmet is lightweight and allows vision outside, unlike other helmets. Always have your helmet at all times while welding and remove it while doing? - Customized to your preference
Every welder likes to work and feel comfortable with the tools and PPEs. You don’t want to wear a boot that is excessively larger than your foot. This mostly dangerous for welders since it may easily cause accidents by tripping and falling.
The same applies to the pancake hoodies. The hoodies are hand-made by the manufacturers. Doing so, they ensure to have the touch of the details that the pipeline welder ordered for. Also, the manufacturers request the facial dimensions of the welders to make the balsa box fit his face with precise measurements.
When it comes to the side covers, the welder also has a say about that. They are customized to the welder’s style of welding. If you are a right welder, you will get your cover to your left. The same applies to left-hand welders.
Welders can further request other customization just for their comfort, such as neck protector installation. This can be done by the manufacturers. You can also request a flipping welding glass. Flip glass enables you to weld both indoors and outdoors. - Prevents exposure from welding fumes reduces eye burn
While welding, there is constant expulsion of welding fumes. The welding fumes are always a threat to the health of pipeline welders. Pipeline welders are always cautioned from breathing these fumes due to their health effects.
Some of the effects caused by these fumes are:- Irritation to the eye
- Cause damage of kidneys and other organs
- Throat irritation
- Cause asthma
Some of these symptoms are delayed, while the obvious one you may experience right away is the irritation of the eye.
However, you can prevent all these by putting on the pancake hood. The flat and roundness of the hood ensure that there is little to no smock reaching your nose. Also, the clearness and other comfort feature found with the hood ensure that you position yourself in a way you won’t take in these fumes.
The balsa box covers the eyes entirely from the fumes. When you tighten the strap well enough, you can weld the entire day and feel no irritation to the eye. If you still feel the irritation ensure that the balsa box fits your eye’s properties and ensure that you are comfortable with it. - Reduces exposure to welding splashes and sparks
The pancake helmet provides adequate coverage for the person making the welds. Its shape ensures that your face, neck, and ears are well covered from sparks and spatters for the pancake design. The exterior crafting of the pancake helmet is flame resistant.
This means that any impact made on the material is impenetrable to reach your face. The design of the helmet makes it impenetrable by any object. Also, the rubber lining around the helmet helps during any impact.
Pipe welders are constantly exposed to heavy pieces of equipment and machines. Sharp, hard, even electric shocks are always a possibility. It’s always a possibility that you will be exposed to burns, injury, or even fracture. But the materials used in making the pancake helmet are meant to provide you with adequate protection from all these accidents while welding.
The welding hood is made to offer you maximum head protection. The lightweight properties applied are supposed to prevent your neck from straining and allow you to weld with ease. Additionally, the extension side of the pancake hood protects you when you work as a team; hence the parks and spatters from your partner won’t reach your ears or eyes.
The balsa box is unusually adjustable; hence you can ensure that your eyes are tightly clear from any harm while you’re welding. While working with pipes, there is always exposure to sharp objects or injury - Better vision
The most significant advantage of the pancake welding helmet is that it allows you to see well while welding outside. This is not possible with other helmets. While joining the pipes, you can see the welding lines and make a straight and accurate weld.
The balsa box also ensures that you don’t have to worry about the sun interfering with your vision while welding. While working in the natural sunlight or indoors, there may be a light that bounces from your filter lances and interfering with your sight. This is usually the case with the flip helmet.
The last thing they want for pipeline workers is this obstruction that may lead to low stand welds for projects that require high accuracy.
This is no issue with the pancake hood since the helmet is designed to keep all the light off your eyes. You can also work closely with your colleagues without any worry of disruption. Inside the balsa box, it is painted black to ensure that no light is reflected in your eyes that may lead to disruption.
The pancake helmet is not only used outside. This helmet is made in a design that you can apply indoors like any helmet. You don’t have to have two helmets. The balsa box is an all-around helmet. - Easy communication
While working on pipes, teamwork is essential. So that teamwork can work, you need to communicate with them without compromising your safety. In the flip helmet, this is not possible for various reasons.
When you talk while the helmet is still in your face and your partner is also wearing one, they can’t hear you or vice versa.
Secondly, while you are communicating in the glass, you will find a fog or moist formation on your glass. You’re compromising your safety since you can’t see well.
Thirdly when you remove your flip helmet, your eyes are likely to come in contact with a flash of the spark of the electrolyte. This will likely damage your eyes. Or cause a painful ache afterward, and you don’t want to go through that experience.
However, when it comes to pancake hood, communication is quickly done. Your mouth is barely covered, and your partners can hear the directives you give them. Also, since the lances are fully covered from your nose and mouth, there will be no mist formation that will interrupt your work.
Most importantly, you don’t have to remove the helmet since they are lightweight; hence you’re not compromising your health. You can barely notice that you have the pancake hood on since it’s extremely light. - Flexibility
While using the lightweight pancake hoodie, you can be assured of flexibility and comfort. The lightweight properties allow you to move around while welding with ease without taking off your pancake googles quickly.
Also, it allows you to do precise welding outside throughout the day without feeling the entire world is lying on your head. Additionally, you can use the same hood to weld the side with the same efficiency as welding outside.
Conclusion
Purchasing your very own pancake helmet will be of great advantage. Especially when you are a pipe welder, you need to own one that you can work with throughout the day and provide quality work. Also, the comfort that the helmet offers makes you want to keep on welding nonstop.
