What is Ingress Protection Rating and what does it mean?

Become familiar with the international protection symbols used to indicate the ingress of solid objects and liquids in electrical enclosures.

The Ingress Protection Rating (or IP Rating) is an international standard (IEC 60529) for the degree of protection or sealing effectiveness of electrical enclosures against the ingress of objects, water, dust or accidental contact. This standard is equivalent to the European standard EN 60529.

IP ratings often consist of the letters IP (Ingress Protection) followed by two numbers and optional letters. The two numbers and the final letter indicate the following protection category.

First digit solid protection

The first digit after IP indicates the level of protection provided to enclosed equipment against solid foreign objects and human contact with hazardous parts such as conductive bodies.

Second number: protection against liquids

The second number after IP in the code rating indicates the level of protection the waterproof enclosure provides to the device.

®actuators marked with IP66 and IP69K

Industrial actuators are often used in environments where they are subject to both liquids and solids. Therefore, all our actuators with aluminum housings are tested to achieve IP66 and IP69K ratings, making them versatile for a wide range of applications.

Actuators marked with IP66 rating are completely protected against dust ingress and strong water jets from any direction. This makes them suitable for outdoor use in changing weather conditions.

If the application requires washing with high-temperature, high-pressure water jets, IP69K is the recommended protection level. This is a common requirement, for example in agricultural machinery, where the actuators do not have to be covered or protected. After field work, the actuators are often exposed to dirt, fertilizers and frequent high-pressure washing.

IP66

• Prevent all dust from entering
• Protects the actuator from high-pressure water jets from all directions

IP69K

• Prevent all dust from entering
• Protects against steam jet cleaning