IP and NEMA Ratings: How They Can Guide Your Vent Selection

A critical aspect of vent selection begins with defining the level of protection your application, device or housing requires.  There are two common standards — one international, the other primarily North American — for defining levels of protection:

• The Ingress Protection (IP) Standard (IEC-60529)
  This international standard, commonly called "IP ratings" defines the degree to which an enclosure protects against:
  • foreign solid objects (access to hazardous parts and against solid foreign objects)
  • ingress of water
  IP-rated vents are those that deliver specific levels of protection against ingress of particles or liquids.
   
• The NEMA 250 Standard for protecting electrical enclosures
  This North American standard, from the National Electrical Manufacturers Association (NEMA), defines the degree to which an electrical enclosure protects against:
  • ingress of particles or liquids
  • incidental contact by personnel
  NEMA 250 also includes many additional requirements for things like enclosure construction and enclosure resistance to other environmental challenges.

While both IP and NEMA define resistance to ingress of solids and fluids, the standards are not identical: NEMA enclosure classifications involve additional testing not included in IP. For this reason, IP ratings cannot be “converted” to NEMA ratings. However, there are minimum NEMA protection ratings that will meet or exceed a given IP code. 

Whether your designs must meet the standards for NEMA or IP-rated enclosures, our representatives and application engineers can help you select the optimum venting solution. We are eager to collaborate with you, from design through testing and manufacturing integration, to meet your requirements.

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IP ratings typically use a two-digit code, such as “IP68,” to specify the type, and level, of environmental protection an enclosure provides. 

The Key to Ingress Protection Ratings

When selecting a vent to meet the demands of your IP-rated enclosure, it’s essential to consider factors such as housing design, vent size and environmental challenges. All will affect a vent’s ability to meet a given IP rating in a given application. For example: 

• IP65 electronic enclosures must admit no dust, and withstand low-pressure water jets: this level of protection is needed for applications such as outdoor environmental lighting around fountains, or residential solar panels that may be hosed down periodically.
• An IP66 outdoor enclosure also admits no dust, and withstands high-pressure water jets from all directions. This is the rating needed for applications that may be cleaned frequently by high-pressure sprays, such as commercial storefront lighting enclosures or industrial vehicles.
• An IP67 vent admits no dust, and withstands temporary immersion in up to 1 meter of water: ideal for heavy-duty equipment that may ford deep puddles or streams, as well as telecom equipment in locations that may experience heavy rain runoffs or temporary water pooling.
• An IP68 electrical enclosure admits no dust, and withstands continuous immersion in water up to 2 meters deep, for varying lengths of time. This level of protection is for applications where extended lifetimes are needed, despite being exposed to water challenges.
   

Our vent materials and constructions are rigorously tested to meet or exceed IP standards for dust, splash and immersion protection. 

Whether your device and housing must meet IP64, IP65, IP67, IP68 or IP69k standards, our representatives and application engineers can help you select the optimum venting solution. 

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NEMA enclosure classifications use a numeric scale, from 1–13, to specify the types and levels of environmental protection an enclosure provides to the internal electronics.  

This table briefly summarizes the levels of protection typically required to seal or vent enclosures that contain electronics. Complete definitions, features and test criteria for all NEMA enclosure types are at www.nema.org.

If your application must meet requirements for vented NEMA enclosures, our representatives and application engineers can help you select the optimum venting solution. 

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