IP Testing to Protect Your Product from Dust & Water
Ensure your product performs reliably in any environment. Our ISO 17025 accredited lab provides accredited Ingress Protection (IP) testing to prove your product's resistance to environmental hazards and meet global quality standards.
- Prove Product Durability: Validate your enclosures and seals against dust, moisture, and high-pressure water jets.
- Meet Global Standards: Accredited testing to IEC 60529, NEMA 250, and other international standards.
- Avoid Costly Field Failures: Identify and correct potential weaknesses before they lead to warranty claims and reputational damage.
- Expert Engineering Support: Our team helps you understand the results and provides guidance for improving your product's design.
Accredited environmental testing
ISO/IEC 17025
A2LA #5179.01
Controlled Goods Program
CGP registered
*A 15-minute introductory call to scope your testing needs. No obligation.
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What is an IP rating?
An Ingress Protection (IP) rating is a two-digit code defined by IEC 60529. The first digit rates how well an enclosure keeps out solid objects and dust, on a scale of 0 to 6. The second rates how well it keeps out water, on a scale of 0 to 9. An IP67 enclosure, for example, is dust tight and withstands temporary immersion.
Getting the right rating keeps a product reliable in the field, and it opens access to the industrial and consumer markets that require one. Testing also finds the weak seal or gasket before your customers do.
What do the two digits in an IP rating mean?
First digit: protection against solids (0 to 6)
This number indicates the level of protection against foreign objects, from large body parts down to microscopic dust. A rating of IP0X offers no special protection, while the highest rating of IP6X means the enclosure is completely dust-tight.
| Code | Protection against solids |
|---|---|
| IP0X | Not protected |
| IP1X | Protected against objects greater than 50 mm |
| IP2X | Protected against objects greater than 12 mm |
| IP3X | Protected against objects greater than 2.5 mm |
| IP4X | Protected against objects greater than 1.0 mm |
| IP5X | Dust protected |
| IP6X | Dust tight |
Second digit: protection against water (0 to 9)
This number indicates the level of protection against moisture, from simple drips to full underwater submersion. A rating of IPX0 means no protection against liquids, while IPX9 protects against powerful, high-temperature water jets.
| Code | Protection against water |
|---|---|
| IPX0 | Not protected |
| IPX1 | Protected against dripping water |
| IPX2 | Protected against dripping water when tilted up to 15° |
| IPX3 | Protected against spraying water |
| IPX4 | Protected against splashing water |
| IPX5 | Protected against water jets |
| IPX6 | Protected against powerful water jets |
| IPX7 | Protected against the effects of immersion |
| IPX8 | Protected against the effects of submersion |
| IPX9 | Protected against high pressure and high temperature water jets |
| IPX9K | High pressure and steam-jet cleaning (defined by ISO 20653, not IEC 60529) |
IPX0 to IPX9 are defined by IEC 60529. IPX9K is defined by ISO 20653, the automotive ingress standard. Megalab is accredited to both.
Beyond IP ratings: the same rigs run as method results
An IP code is a rating. IP67 tells a buyer the enclosure is dust tight and survives temporary immersion, and it is what goes on a datasheet. Military, aerospace and rail specifications rarely ask for a code. They ask for a method: run MIL-STD-810 Method 506 and report what happened. Same water, same enclosure, sometimes the same nozzle, but the deliverable is a test result against a procedure rather than a rating against a table.
Megalab runs both, on the same equipment. If your document cites a section number, you need a method result. If it cites a two digit code, you need a rating.
Rain and water methods
- MIL-STD-810 Method 506: rain, blowing rain and drip.
- RTCA DO-160 Section 10: the airborne equivalent, covering condensation, drip and spray.
- IEC 60068-2-18 Test R: the general purpose water method used across commercial electronics.
- MIL-STD-810 Method 512: immersion, taking the product under water to a defined depth. The method counterpart to IPX7 and IPX8.
Each defines its own nozzle arrangement, water delivery and exposure geometry, and none of them maps cleanly onto an IPX rating, which is why a customer asking for both usually needs both run.
Dust and sand
Settling dust is the in-house test for solids ingress, and it is the one most specifications mean when they ask for a dust rating.
- Settling dust suspends fine talc around the enclosure and checks what gets in. This is the IP5X and IP6X test in IEC 60529, and it is also MIL-STD-810 Method 510 Procedure I and IEC 60068-2-68. We run it in house, in our own dust chamber.
Icing, and where it lives
MIL-STD-810 Method 521 and RTCA DO-160 Section 24 build an ice layer on the product and confirm it still operates, or still releases. Both are accredited on our scope. Because the equipment is a cold chamber with a spray rather than an ingress rig, icing is covered under temperature testing.
Which ingress standards can we test to?
- IEC 60529: IP1X to IP6X and IPX1 to IPX9, the IP code itself.
- ISO 20653: road vehicle IP, adding the IPX9K high pressure high temperature jet.
- NEMA 250 Section 5, UL 50, UL 50E: North American enclosure Types. See NEMA enclosure testing.
- CSA C22.2 No. 94.1 and 94.2: Canadian enclosure requirements.
- EN 50436-1, EIA/ECA-364-10E and IEC/EN 60950-22 for specialised and outdoor equipment.
- MIL-STD-810: Method 506 rain, Method 512 immersion, and Method 510 Procedure I settling dust, all in house.
- RTCA DO-160: Section 10 waterproofness and Section 12 sand and dust.
- IEC/EN 60068-2-18 Test R water and 60068-2-68 Test L dust and sand.
- EIA-364-50 fine sand, MIL-STD-202 Method 106 moisture resistance, MIL-STD-883 Method 1002 water.
Accredited by A2LA to ISO/IEC 17025 under certificates 5179.01 and 5179.02. See our accreditations.
Ingress protection questions we are asked most
Continuous immersion under water at a depth and duration agreed with the manufacturer, since IEC 60529 leaves both to be defined rather than fixing them. Tell us your intended depth and we will confirm what the test looks like.
Neither. They test different things. IPX9 is a high pressure, high temperature jet. IP68 is dust tight plus continuous immersion. A product exposed to both pressure washing and submersion needs both, marked as a dual rating. The implied lower degree rule stops at second digit 6, so IPX7 and IPX8 tell you nothing about jet resistance.
Testing produces an accredited test report stating the rating achieved. The manufacturer then declares the rating on the product and its documentation. For an enclosure sold empty, the final rating stays with whoever completes the assembly, not with the enclosure maker or the laboratory.
Enclosure size and surface area, since they set how long the nozzle and jet tests run. The number of orientations the product has to be tested in. Whether the sample is powered and monitored during the test. Whether the specification calls for a code, a method result, or both. Send us the dimensions and the specification and we will quote it.