Ingress Protection (IP) Rating The IP (Ingress Protection) System provides a means of classifying the degrees of protection to dust

and water afforded by electrical equipment and enclosures. The system is recognized in most European Standard BS EN 60529:1991, specification for degree of protection provided by enclosures (IP code). The system typically uses two figures, and although a third can be quoted for mechanical impact, it is not usually used in practice. The first figure shows the degree of protection against solid objects and the second figure shows the degree of protection against liquids. First Number Protection against solid objects 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 No protection Protection against solid objects over 50mm Protection against solid objects over 12mm Protection against solid objects over 2.5mm Protection against solid objects over 1mm Protected against dust - limited ingress (no harmful deposit) Totally protected against dust

Second Number Protection against liquids 0 No protection 1 Protection against vertically falling drops of liquid 2 Protection against direct spray up to 15 degrees from the vertical 3 Protection against direct spray up to 65 degrees from vertical 4 Protection against direct spray from all directions 5 Protection against low pressure jets from all directions 6 Protection against strong jets 7 Protection against the effects of immersion up to 1 meter for short periods 8 Protection against long periods of immersion under pressure Third Number (Optional) Protection against mechanical impacts 0 No protection 1 2 Protection against impacts of 0.225 joule (e.g.: 150g weight falling from 15cm height) Protection against impacts of 0.375 joule (e.g.: 250g weight falling from 15cm height)

3 Protection against impacts of 0.5 joule (e.g.: 250g weight falling from 20cm height) 4 Protection against impacts of 2.0 joule (e.g.: 500g weight falling from 40cm height) 5 Protection against impacts of 6.0 joule (e.g.: 1.5kg weight falling from 40cm height) 6 Protection against impacts of 20.0 joule (e.g.: 5.0kg weight falling from 40cm height)