IP refers to ingression protection. Now, a lot of people have a lot of things that confuse them when it comes to IP rating. Today, I will explain the Ingress Protection rating system in detail to you. I will provide you with answers to every question that you might have. What is the meaning of the numbers written with the rating? What is the best rating? And how is the rating given to any item?
All of these questions regularly pop up in all of our minds. We usually don’t know what it means. We all wish that we knew exactly how the ratings are assigned to any product. They say that the production is dustproof or water and state a rating. It all confuses us, and we all start looking for answers. And I am guessing that you ended up here looking for those answers.
Most importantly, I will provide you with the answer to the most common question. IP67 or IPX7? Which one is better and why?
But before I could answer that question, we need to understand the rating system. Without any further delay, let’s jump into it.
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What is IP?
IP refers to ingress protection. It can be given to almost any electronic product. It means that a rating has been assigned to the product regarding how well it can handle the solid or liquid in its environment. The product when taken out of its packing will be exposed to your environment. Every environment can have dust or water in it. And the rating represents how well the product can handle those two elements.
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What do the numbers mean?
The numbers represent the score of the product. Now, it always does not mean that the higher score is always better. I will explain that to you in a little bit. But first, let’s try to understand the number and what they represent. Whenever you hear a rating, notice that the numbers are always spoken separately. For example, they say it is IP followed by 6 and then 7. They don’t say it has sixty-seven Ever wondered why?
The reason behind it is simple. Both the numbers represent the rating of different categories. The first part of the rating represents the product’s ingress protection in regards to solid-like dust etc. And the second part of the rating represents the ingress protection in regards to liquid like water. And this is the reason why both the numbers are pronounced separately.
Now, since we know what the numbers in the ingress protection represent, let’s dig a little deeper into the details.
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Rating Chart of Ingress Protection
Let’s start off with the first number. The first number of ingress protection represents the level of protection against solids in the environment. The scale for this starts from 0 to 6. Now, let’s see what each number means, and what level of protection are they referring to.
IP67
Here, we will provide the description of the rating, check below details and know about it:-
Zero ( 0 ) rating:
Now, this rating is given to any product which does not offer any protection at all. It means that any solid particle can easily infiltrate the internals of your product. And when the solid particle infiltrates, the product offers no resistance. And hence, making the product easily vulnerable against any solid body in the environment.
One (1) rating:
This rating does offer better protection than zero. It offers protection from a large of your hand or any solid body. It offers protection from any solid body with a diameter of more than 50mm.
Two (2) rating:
This rating also offers better protection than the previous ones. It offers protection from your fingers or any solid body. It offers protection from any solid body with a diameter of more than 12mm.
Three (3) rating:
It offers protection from entry by tools, wires, etc. which have a thickness of more than 1.0 mm.
Four (4) rating:
Now, in my personal opinion, the product you are gonna should have this or better rating. It protects your product from the entry of any solid object with a diameter of more than 1.0 mm.
Five (5) rating:
This offers protection from any solid object that might interfere with the operation of your product. Dust particles may get in, but their infiltration would not intervene with the operation of the product This is what product with this rating offers.
Six (6) rating:
This is the best rating a product can offer in terms of protection against solid objects. This offers protection from all solid bodies including dust. It also does not allow it to infiltrate at all. The product that is dustproof will have this rating.
The second number of the rating shows the product capability of handling water in the environment. The rating starts from 0 to 8. Now, let’s see what level of protection these rating products offer.
IPx7
Here, we will provide the description of the rating, check below details and know about it:-
Zero (0) rating:
Like in the solid case, this rating represents that the product can not handle exposure to water at all. It means that the product offers no special protection.
One (1) rating:
This is the lowest rating. It offers protection from only vertically dropping water droplets or condensation of water
Two (2) rating:
This rating is similar to the previous rating. It offers protection from vertically dripping water or condensation of water. Except the angle can vary up to 15 degrees and it would be able to protect your product.
Three (3) rating:
This rating is also similar to the previous one, however, it offers a more wide angle. It offers protection from dripping water. The angle can vary up to 60 degrees.
Four (4) rating:
This rating product is protected from splashes of water. However, the splashes of water can come from any direction and the product will remain unharmed.
Five (5) rating:
This rating offers protection from low-pressure water jets from any direction. It is better than the previous ratings as this would be able to handle pressure better.
Six (6) rating:
This rating offers protection from high-pressure water jets from all directions. It is similar to the previous rating, however, this rating product would be able to handle more pressure.
Seven (7) rating:
The product that falls under this category can be completely immersed underwater. They can be immersed underwater up to 1 m and they will last at least 30 minutes underwater and still function normally.
Eight (8) rating:
The product that falls under this category can be immersed completely underwater just like the previous rating products. However, the difference is the depth. They can be immersed up to 3 m underwater for 30 minutes. They will function normally even after those 30 minutes.
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Note:
Now, those are all the ratings that are there except one. I left it intentionally for later as it is similar in regards to both solids and liquids. The X rating. This rating simply means that the product has not been tested at all for that environment. Like if it is written as IP4X. It means that the product has not been tested for the liquid environment at all. And therefore, it can not be assigned any rating in terms of that environment.
Also, another thing to note is that the rating for the liquid environment is based on tests. The tests are carried out with fresh water. So, if the product does not last pool water, it is because the water has chlorine. The rating is assigned to any product on the basis of the tests which are done in freshwater. So, I would recommend keeping your product protected and buy the product after checking the rating. The rating would help you to keep your product as safe as it can in case of accidents.
One more thing that I would like to inform you about the rating. The second part of the rating is a bit more tricky than it looks. Rating 5 can be better than 7 or 8 in some cases. The product with a rating of 7 and 8 might not be able to handle the condition of rating 5 as the pressure plays a vital role. There are products out there in the market that offer multiple ratings. They would present their rating like IP65 and I67.
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IP67 or IPX7? Which one to Choose?
I think this has become a very clear choice. Once you have read about the ratings successfully, you would be able to understand which one is better and why. So, if you were confused about which product on the basis of these two ratings, go ahead and buy the product with the rating of IP67 without any further delay.
Conclusion
I hope I was able to clarify all the doubts which you had in your mind regarding the IP ratings. How do you know which one is better? I am confident that from now, you would be easily able to know which product is better in terms of protection after taking a look at the IP ratings of the product.
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