INGRESS PROTECTION Protection against the intrusion of foreign bodies into a lighting fixture. The IEC1 has established standards categorizing ingress protection for luminaires beyond that provided by a UL Wet Location product listing and is accepted internationally.  1IEC International Electrotechnical Commission INGRESS PROTECTION Have you got it? GLOBAL STANDARDS In today’s global economy knowledge of international standards are essential to facilitate world wide lighting designs and product sales. Lighting fixtures that meet the requirements of such standards are much more likely to be accepted all over the world. Lighting designers who utilize such standards will be able to understand and specify products on a global basis. One such standard is IEC 5292 better known by it’s IP coding system (IP65) specifies tests for an electrical enclosure that determine it’s protection level against the ingress of foreign objects such as dust or water. 2See IEC 529 and IEC598-1:1996 for a complete explanation of IP relating to luminaires. IP IS INGRESS PROTECTION3 The degree of protection assigned to a lighting fixture, is given by the IP code, defined by two digits such as:4 IP 65 - Describes a particular dust and water protection level. IP 6X - The ‘6’ stands for a particular level of protection against solid intrusion5. IP X5 - The ‘5’ stands for a particular level of protection against liquid intrusion. The table below details the range and meaning of each code. 3IP is defined as International Protection in IEC 529. 4See IEC 529 and IEC598-1:1996 for a complete explanation of the IP categories and digits. 5Protection against foreign bodies such as dust and access to hazardous parts inside the fixture by a person or object held by a person. PROTECTION AGAINST:
6IEC529 describes protection categories against the entry of solid objects as shown above. IEC529 also describes protection categories to limit the access to hazardous parts inside the fixture by a person or object held by a person. To achieve a particular coding both sets of requirements must established. IP MARKINGS Products passing the tests may apply the markings7 shown below in addition to the “IP65” format. Note, only some categories have been assigned a symbol.
7See IEC598-1:1996 for a complete explanation of markings and requirements before they can be applied.  INGRESS PROTECTION WE HAVE IT!IP67 Products SL-23, SL-24, SL-29, SL-33, SL-34, SL-42, SL-43 - Completely Dust-tight - Jet water-proof in all directions and able to withstand temporary immersion - But it is not an underwater fixture e.g. IP68.
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IP44 Products
Two of the most common tests performed on outdoor wet location lighting fixtures are the dust and jet water test. For a lighting fixture to be rated IP65 it must pass both.
After the test has been completed the fixture is inspected for internal dust deposits. To pass at level 6 no internal deposit of dust must be observed. After the dust test, the fixture is then prepared for the category 5, jet water test.
The fixture is sprayed from all possible directions with a water jet. The water jet is sprayed from a 6.3mm internal diameter nozzle at a delivery rate of 12.5l/min, from a 3m distance, for a test duration of 15 minutes.