[[File:IPX Codes Explanation Chart (cropped).jpg|thumb|Example IP code. From left to right:

]]

thumb|IP65 touchscreen display

thumb|IP65 LED lamp

The IP code or Ingress Protection code indicates how well a device is protected against water and dust. It is defined by the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) under the international standard IEC 60529 which classifies and provides a guideline to the degree of protection provided by mechanical casings and electrical enclosures against intrusion, dust, accidental contact, and water. It is published in the European Union by the European Committee for Electrotechnical Standardization (CENELEC) as EN 60529.

The standard aims to provide users more detailed information than vague marketing terms such as waterproof. For example, a cellular phone rated at IP67 is "dust resistant" and can be "immersed in 1 meter of freshwater for up to 30 minutes". Similarly, an electrical socket rated IP22 is protected against insertion of fingers and will not become unsafe during a specified test in which it is exposed to vertically or nearly vertically dripping water. IP22 or IP2X are typical minimum requirements for the design of electrical accessories for indoor use.

The digits indicate conformity with the conditions summarized in the tables below. The digit 0 is used where no protection is provided. The digit is replaced with the letter X when insufficient data has been gathered to assign a protection level. The device can become less capable; however, it cannot become unsafe.

There are no hyphens in a standard IP code. IPX-8 (for example) is thus an invalid IP code. In the next editions of the standard, from years 1989 and 1999 respectively, the IP is explained to denote "international protection" on both French and English pages. According to the Finnish national committee of the IEC, one possibility is that the abbreviation is a combination of English word ingress and French word pénétration which stands for ingress, but finding the correct answer would require doing a historical study on the 1970's standardization, which is difficult because the experts preparing the original standards are likely retired or deceased.

Code breakdown

This table shows what each digit or part of the IP code represents.

{| class="wikitable"

|-

! rowspan=2 | Code <br/>letters

! First

! Second

! Third

! Additional

! Supplementary

|-

! Solid particle protection

! Liquid ingress protection

! Mechanical impact resistance

! colspan=2 | Other protections

|-

| IP

| 0–6 or X

| 0–9 or X

| 0–9

| Letter

| Letter

|-

| By definition

| Required

| Required

| No longer used

| Optional

| Optional

|}

First digit: Solid particle protection

The first digit indicates the level of protection the enclosure provides against access to hazardous parts (e.g., electrical conductors, moving parts) and the ingress of solid foreign objects.

{| class="wikitable"

! Level sized !! Effective against !! Description

|-

! X

| Unknown

| X means no data is available to specify a protection rating about this criterion.

|-

! 0

| —

| No protection against contact and ingress of objects

|-

! 1

| &gt;&nbsp;

| Any large surface of the body, such as the back of a hand, but no protection against deliberate contact with a body part

|-

! 2

| &gt;&nbsp;

| Fingers or similar objects

|-

! 3

| &gt;&nbsp;

| Tools, thick wires, etc.

|-

! 4

| &gt;&nbsp;

| Most wires, slender screws, large ants, etc.

|-

! 5

| Dust protected

| Ingress of dust is not entirely prevented, but it must not enter in sufficient quantity to interfere with the safe operation of the equipment.

|-

! 6

| Dust-tight

| No ingress of dust; complete protection against contact (dust-tight). A vacuum must be applied. Test duration of up to 8 hours based on airflow.

|}

Second digit: Liquid ingress protection

The second digit indicates the level of protection that the enclosure provides against harmful ingress of water.

The ratings for water ingress are not cumulative beyond IPX6. A device compliant with IPX7 (covering water immersion) is not necessarily compliant with IPX5 or IPX6 (covering exposure to water jets). A device that meets both tests is indicated by listing both tests separated by a slash, e.g. IPX5/IPX7. Standard IP testing is performed using fresh water; protection against other fluids, such as salt water, oils, or solvents, is not guaranteed by the rating and requires specific chemical resistance testing.

{| class="wikitable"

! style="width: 5em;" | Level

! style="width: 20em;" | Protection against

! style="width: 60em;" | Effective against

! style="width: 45em;" | Details

|-

! X

| Unknown

| —

| X means no data is available to specify a protection rating concerning these criteria.

|-

! 0

| None

| —

| No protection against ingress of water

|-

! 1

| Dripping water

| Dripping water (vertically falling drops) shall have no unsafe effect on the specimen when mounted upright onto a turntable and rotated at 1 RPM.

| Test duration: 10&nbsp;minutes

Water equivalent to rainfall per minute

|-

! 2

| Dripping water when tilted at 15°

| Vertically dripping water shall have no harmful effect when the enclosure is tilted at an angle of 15° from its normal position. A total of four positions are tested within two axes. || Test duration: 2.5&nbsp;minutes for every direction of tilt (10 minutes total)<br />

Water equivalent to rainfall per minute

|-

! 3

| Spraying water

| Water falling as a spray at any angle up to 60° from the vertical shall have no harmful effect, utilizing either: a) an oscillating fixture, or b) a spray nozzle with a counterbalanced shield.

Test a) is conducted for 5 minutes, then repeated with the specimen rotated horizontally by 90° for the second 5-minute test. Test b) is conducted (with a shield in place) for 5 minutes minimum.

| For a spray nozzle:

Test duration: 1 minute per square meter for at least 5&nbsp;minutes

Water volume:

Pressure:

For an oscillating tube:

Test duration: 10 minutes

Water volume: per hole

|-

! 4

| Splashing of water

| Water splashing against the enclosure from any direction shall have no harmful effect, utilizing either:

a) an oscillating fixture, or b) A spray nozzle with no shield.

Test

a) is conducted for 10 minutes.

b) is conducted (without shield) for 5 minutes minimum.

| Oscillating tube: Test duration: 10 minutes, or spray nozzle (same as IPX3 spray nozzle with the shield removed)

|-

! 5

| Water jets || Water projected by a nozzle () against enclosure from any direction shall have no harmful effects.

| Test duration: 1 minute per square meter for at least 3&nbsp;minutes

Water volume: 12.5&nbsp;litres per minute

Pressure: at distance of

|-

! 6

| Powerful water jets

| Water projected in powerful jets ( nozzle) against the enclosure from any direction shall have no harmful effects.

| Test duration: 1 minute per square meter for at least 3&nbsp;minutes

Water volume:

Pressure: at distance of

|-

! 6K

| Powerful water jets with increased pressure

| Water projected in powerful jets ( nozzle) against the enclosure from any direction, under elevated pressure, shall have no harmful effects. Found in DIN 40050, and not IEC 60529. || Test duration: at least 3&nbsp;minutes<br />

Water volume:

Pressure: at distance of

|-

! 7

| Immersion, up to depth || Ingress of water in harmful quantity shall not be possible when the enclosure is immersed in water under defined conditions of pressure and time (up to of submersion). || Test duration: 30&nbsp;minutes. Enclosures conforming with ISO 20653:2013 must be both dust-tight (IP6X) and able to withstand high-pressure and steam cleaning.

The IPx9K standard was originally developed for road vehicles—especially those that need regular intensive cleaning (dump trucks, concrete mixers, etc.)—but it also finds use in other areas, such as food processing machinery and car wash systems. It was superseded by ISO 20653:2013 Road Vehicles-Degrees of protection (IP code), and complemented by the addition of a level 9 water ingress testing to IEC 60529, which includes essentially the same spray test as IPx9K, but also includes, in Figure 10 of the standard, a drawing for a test fixture designed to verify the correct water pressure.

IPx9K and IPx9

DIN 40050-9 extended the newer IEC 60529 rating system with an IP69K rating for high-pressure, high-temperature wash-down applications. Enclosures conforming with ISO 20653:2013 must be both dust-tight (IP6X) and able to withstand high-pressure and steam cleaning.

The IPx9K standard was originally developed for road vehicles—especially those that need regular intensive cleaning (dump trucks, concrete mixers, etc.)—but it also finds use in other areas, such as food processing machinery and car wash systems. It was superseded by ISO 20653:2013 Road Vehicles-Degrees of protection (IP code), and complemented by the addition of a level 9 water ingress testing to IEC 60529, which includes essentially the same spray test as IPx9K, but also includes, in Figure 10 of the standard, a drawing for a test fixture designed to verify the correct water pressure. From a metrological verification perspective, a critical issue in practical laboratory compliance is the widespread misapplication of standard agricultural spray nozzles instead of certified, high-precision fan jet nozzles. Under the required high-temperature and high-pressure environment, deviant internal fluid dynamics and non-standard orifice profiles fail to achieve the mandatory impact force verification (0.9–1.2&nbsp;N as specified in Clause 14.2.9 of IEC 60529), systematically distorting testing reproducibility and leading to invalid false-pass results.

Test setup

The test specifies a spray nozzle that is fed with water at and a flow rate of . The nozzle is held 10–15&nbsp;cm from the tested device at angles of 0°, 30°, 60° and 90° for 30&nbsp;seconds each. The test device sits on a turntable that completes a rotation once every 12&nbsp;seconds (5&nbsp;rpm). The IPx9 specification details a freehand method for testing larger specimens that will not fit on a turntable (see table above). The free hand method also requires (at least) one additional minute of spray time (1 min/m<sup>2</sup>, 3 min. minimum). The test distance also increases to .175 m (0.15–0.2 m per section 14.2.9).

== United States (NEMA rating) ==<!--The following section is a target of internal redirects.-->

In the U.S., the National Electrical Manufacturers Association defines NEMA enclosure types in NEMA standard number 250. The following table outlines which IEC 60529 IP code each respective NEMA guideline meets. Ratings between the two standards are not directly equivalent: NEMA ratings also require additional product features and tests (such as functionality under icing conditions, enclosures for hazardous areas, knock-outs for cable connections and others) not addressed by IP ratings.

{| class="wikitable"

|-

! NEMA enclosure

! IP code

|-

| 1 || IP20

|-

| 2 || IP22

|-

| 3, 3X, 3S, 3SX || IP55

|-

| 3R, 3RX || IP24

|-

| 4, 4X || IP44, IP66, IP65

|-

| 5 || IP53

|-

| 6 || IP67

|-

| 6P || IP68

|-

| 12, 12K, 13 || IP54

|}

See also

  • Appliance classes
  • EN 62262 – IK code on resistance to mechanical impacts
  • MIL-STD-810
  • U.S. Military connector specifications for military equivalents
  • Water Resistant mark on wrist watches

References

  • 2004 version of the standard
  • Ingress Protection (IP) ratings on the official IEC website – Comprehensive general overview and history of the IEC 60529 standard by the International Electrotechnical Commission.
  • Official IEC 60529 Standard Preview (PDF) – Free authoritative preview document from the International Electrotechnical Commission, showing the full technical table of contents and structural framework of the IP Code.
  • Baseefa Technical Guide to IP Ratings (PDF) – Detailed industrial technical reference map published by SGS Baseefa, explaining real-world testing procedures, enclosure classifications, and compliance validation.
  • Official IEC TC 70 Dashboard – Technical Committee 70 (Degrees of protection provided by enclosures) page, outlining upcoming revisions, international voting status, and the complete portfolio of related IEC standards.