Making sense of IP ratings in coding and marking

Ingress Protection (IP) ratings have an important role to play in coding and marking equipment

The background

Ingress Protection (IP) ratings have an important role to play in coding and marking equipment, as they give the user an indication of a product’s resistance or protection to external elements, such as dust and water. These ratings are present to provide users with objective information, rather than subjective terms (such as ‘waterproof’). While standardised labelling to indicate conformity within certain conditions exists, there is often confusion around what an IP rating for a product actually means, and which IP rating is required for an application.

The protection standard

The international standard for the classification of the sealing effectiveness of electrical enclosures is EN 60529. This standard lays out the various categories for protection against foreign bodies (from tools, fingers or dust) and moisture (from condensation through to washdown and immersion). The acronym IP is generally accepted to stand for ‘Ingress Protection’, although it is sometimes also referred to as ‘Indicated Protection.’ IP is then followed by two numbers that indicate the level of protection against foreign bodies and moisture, such as IP55,