When it comes to welding, true safety extends beyond personal protective equipment—and even beyond standard welding barriers—to cover the risks hiding between “protected” areas.

To close gaps and control environments and ultimately keep people safe, smart employers are looking to modular, custom-built barriers for their facilities.

Brent Nyberg, key account manager at Steiner Industries, which has been manufacturing welding curtains, screens and blankets for 50 years, answers common questions about custom solutions.

What misconceptions do you most often see in how shops approach welding-area protection?

I’ve been in many facilities that just think of the actual welding process, and PPE: Do they have the right gloves or the right helmet to protect the welder? They don’t think about other people walking by.

Some safety managers think that when welding is done way off in the distance, they don’t really need protection.

UV rays can travel, and so we have to have protection from that. It doesn’t matter if someone is 10 feet away or 200 feet away. They’re still getting exposed if there is no proper protection in terms of welding screens and curtains.

What are the safety risks of “in-between” areas—those small openings between stations or screens?

It’s important that everyone understands the risks associated with welding, specifically arc flash. Protection is necessary for anyone passing by, and you do not have to even be welding.

Typically, we look toward the light when people are welding. We’re curious: “What’s going on there?” Any openings in the screens are a potential hazard.

As you’re walking down the production hallway, there can be a 2-to-3-inch gap on some of the frames, and if those gaps are not covered by UV-protected material, it can create a long-term hazard to your eyes.

Read more: Not Your Grandpa’s Welding PPE and Gear

What makes custom solutions more effective than trying to modify standard products?

A standard screen or curtain might only be 6-by-6, 6-by-8 or 6-by-10. If you need something more, custom solutions can get up to 25 feet high.

Maybe you have a double-level production facility, and you’re looking down on some welding that’s being done, but it’s through clear curtains or glass. The UV rays are still coming through.

You need to make sure that even at a distance and height, the welding production is being protected.

We can customize our approach to suit an application. For example, we can work in between pillars or HVAC that might be in the way. We can build it down to the inch, if necessary.

Say that you want a 40-foot-long, 14-foot-high curtain. We usually put a new curtain every 10 to 15 feet, and the sections can be overlapped. By providing Velcro enclosures, people can go in or out when they need to, but the gap stays closed while someone is welding.

What’s the process for getting started on a custom welding screen or curtain solution?

All we need is a description of what you’re looking to do to protect your welding operation, and whether there are any barriers in the way. Sometimes we will get CAD drawings or schematics of the facility, but it could be as simple as writing on a napkin—which I’ve seen before, believe it or not.

When designs come through me, I will identify how you want to mount the curtain. We have the capability of having a suspension mount, a wall mount, a floor mount, or a ceiling or flush mount.

We can supply the hardware, or sometimes end users have their own hardware—maybe an aircraft cable—and we’ll build the curtain.

If there is a garage or some kind of open drafting going on, the curtain can be made with a chain on the bottom to weigh it down so it’s not swaying as much.

Read more: Hot Work Safety: Curbing the Risks of Flame-Generating Tools

We’ll discuss preferences. Does the facility manager want to see what’s going on in the protected welding area? If so, you may want to use a lighter tint of treated vinyl. Sometimes end users want to use a specific color because it matches their company colors.

If it’s a big job, we may do a first phase before we get into the full-production curtain, so we can make sure that the smaller section is done to your specifications the first time.

Does the color of the curtain make a difference in arc flash protection?

The UV rays that come through a tinted vinyl are 99 percent protected regardless of the color.

I’ve had facility managers say a yellow tinted screen is more harmful to passersby than a dark-blue or dark-green tinted screen, and they want to switch to a darker shade of UV-treated vinyl thinking that it’s going to better protect from UV rays. That’s not the case.

When the tinted vinyl is UV-rated, the color doesn’t matter. Only the harmless visible light comes through.

Besides welding, how else are custom screens and curtains used?

About 40 percent of our applications are in areas beyond welding.

If you’re powder coating, painting, sandblasting or doing food processing, for instance, curtains can segregate those areas. If you need an area blocked off or if you have contamination or particles that you don’t want to go into other areas, we can provide that solution.

In addition to traditional curtains, UV-protected strip curtains can segregate an area but allow for forklift capabilities.