When talking about degree of protection IPReference is made to the IEC 60529 “Degrees of Protection” standard, developed and established by the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) or International Electrotechnical Commission, in Spanish.
The standard indicates the protection levels, with which the cover or container of electrical or electronic equipment and tools must comply. The protection referred to in the standard is that which prevents solid and liquid materials from entering the interior of the equipment or tool, causing any damage. The acronym IP corresponds to the English word “Ingress Protection”, That is, income protection.
Coding of degree of protection
The standard has established a combination of letters and numbers, to indicate the degree of protection with which a team has. This, with the idea of facilitating the interpretation of said information, in each of the tools or equipment.
We will take as an example the degree of protection IP67:
- The acronym “IP”, as we already mentioned, indicates “Ingress Protection”.
- The first number, determines the level of protection against solid elements. In this case the “6” indicates that: “The dust must not enter under any circumstances”.
- The second number indicates the level of protection against liquid elements, usually water. In the example “7” means that: “The object must withstand complete immersion at 1 meter for 30 minutes”.
The higher the IP protection degree, the more protection the equipment will have.
The following tables show the possible values for the first and second numbers, and their meaning.
IP Protection Standards – Possible Values
IP Protection Standards – Possible Values
Degree of protection tests of products or equipment
Everything tool maker or equipment, you must submit your products to certain tests indicated by the IEC, to comply with the appropriate degree of IP protection, also indicated by said commission.
To check if the equipment covers comply with the degree of protection against solid particles (first number of the IP code), the tests for each level of protection and their details are shown in the following table.
IP Protection Standards – Solid Protection Tests
For the realization of the protection level 5 and 6 tests, a powder chamber is used, as shown in the following image:
Dust chamber – Test protection level IP 5 and 6
For the detail of the liquid protection tests, the information is shown in the following table:
IP protection tests against liquids
One of the devices or instruments used for liquid protection tests, specifically for levels 3 and 4, is the irrigation simulator, which is shown below:
Irrigation simulator – IP protection level 3 and 4 test
The IP protection code, is the way to know the level of protection that the equipment that we use or are going to acquire has. It is very important to understand what it consists of and how to interpret it.
