Ingress Protection

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Ingress protection forms part of the process of determining the level of protection provided by equipment enclosures. The test methods and definitions of the ingress protection (IP) codes are covered under the BS EN 60529, 60598 and DIN40050:9 standards.

The protection offered by enclosures should include:

Protection of persons against access to hazardous parts.
Protection of equipment inside the enclosures to ingress of solid foreign objects.
Protection of equipment in the enclosures against harmful effects due to the ingress of water.

IP Ratings

The first digit of the IP rating represents the level of protection from solid ingress, and the second digit represents the level of protection from liquid ingress according the table below:

	IP Rating	Level of Protection
Solid ingress	IP1X	Protected against solid objects greater than 50mm diameter
	IP2X	Protected against solid objects greater than 12.5mm diameter
	IP3X	Protected against solid objects greater than 2.5mm diameter
	IP4X	Protected against solid objects greater than 1.0mm diameter
	IP5X	Dust protected (with or without vacuum applied to the product)
	IP6X	Dust tight (with a vacuum applied to the product)
Liquid ingress	IPX1	Protected against dripping water
	IPX2	Protected against dripping water when tilted up to 15 degrees
	IPX3	Protected against spraying water
	IPX4	Protected against splashing water
	IPX5	Protected against water jets
	IPX6	Protected against powerful water jets
	IPX7	Protected against the effects of temporary immersion in water
	IPX8	Protected against the effects of continuous immersion in water
	IPX9K	Protected against high temperature and high pressure water jets