Ingress Protection

Ingress protection ratings or IP ratings, refer to the level of protection offered by an electrical enclosure, against solids and liquids. In an environment where dust or water could damage electronic components, a sealed enclosure is used to prevent such ingress and safe house the electronics.

IEC 60529 – Degree of Protection provided by enclosures (IP Code)

According to this standard, the degree of protection provided by enclosures of electrical equipment as regard:

1. Protection of persons against access to hazardous parts inside the enclosure
2. Protection of the equipment inside the enclosure against the ingress of solid foreign objects (or we can say ingress of dust)
3. Protection of the equipment inside the enclosure against the harmful effects due to ingress of the water

Ingress Protection of an enclosure is represented as IP XY where first X denotes Protection against solid foreign objects and Y represents Protection against ingress of water.

Protection against solid foreign objects
0 – No protection/ No test required
1 – Protected against objects greater than 50mm diameter
2 – Protected against objects greater than 12.5mm diameter, such as a finger
3 – Protected against objects greater than 2.5mm
4 – Protected against objects greater than 1.0mm such as wire
5 – Ingress of dust is not totally prevented but dust does not enter in harmful quantities to interfere with the correct operation or impair safety
6 – No ingress of dust permitted

Protection against ingress of water
0 – No protection / No test required
1 – Protected against falling drops of water
2 – Protected against drops falling at 15° in 4 fixed positions
3 – Low pressure spray – similar to shower head at up to 60° from vertical tested using an oscillating tube with an arc of 60° for ten minutes
4 – Low pressure spray – similar to shower head – as per numeral 3 but 180° for 10 minutes
5 – Medium pressure jet – 6.3mm diameter, similar to garden hose – from any angle for 3 minutes at a distance of 2.5-3 metres.
6 – High pressure jet – 12.5mm diameter, similar to fire hose – from any angle for 3 minutes at a distance of 2.5-3 meters.
7 – Immersion – for temporary immersion in water under set conditions – 1 metre for 30 minutes
8 – Protected against the effects of continuous immersion in water, ingress of water in quantities causing harmful effects shall not be possible. Conditions should be more severe than for numeral 7.
9 – Steam clean, high pressure, high temp jet wash

At our laboratory, we are equipped to test your product upto IP 67 code.