One odd note: Just because your housing can withstand the static pressure of water at one meter depth doesn’t mean that it can withstand the water jet test from IP圆, so test both, if the design will need to resist forceful spray.Īnd here we return to GoPro’s impressive housing. If this test goes wrong, it goes really wrong, and you end up with scrap electrical parts. The next level requires immersion: letting the housing sit in a meter of water for 30 minutes.
My girlfriend’s will never be the same. ( Source) Most consumer electronics can’t handle this, and if they can, the designers are bragging about their “IP Rated” product. Still, this is a good level for a “rain-proof” housing, and a lot of phone housings come from the factory with this as a basic level of sufficiency.Īt IP圆, the tests get interesting you have to spray your housing for several minutes with a 100-liter-per-minute jet at 15 psi. IPx5 is decent step up-if you spray your housing with water from any angle, the interior parts keep working-but at this level, the spray is light (just over 4 psi and relatively low flow). This describes many older watches and means that the interior parts will keep working after a splash of water, but any more water will be an issue. IP Rating requirements and tests ( Source)įor most applications, the lowest rating considered “water resistant” is IPx4. Dustproof is certainly not a given with waterproof design, but once seals protect against spraying water, most people will assume they protect against dust.
While that can be important, most industrial and consumer uses will be more concerned about the waterproof rating. The IP6x means that it’s dustproof and that no particles of dust can get inside. The most common markings you’ll see on cases and housings are IP67 and IP68, but all of them are worth exploring. If you want to only indicate the level of waterproofness, an “x” can be used in place of the first number, to indicate just the second (example: IPx7 means we know how waterproof it is, but have no idea, and may not really care, about the dust). The system has two unrelated numbers following the IP: The first number indicates the level of dustproof-ness, while the second indicates how waterproof an enclosure is. The International Protection (IP) Marking SystemĪlso called the “Ingress Protection” marking system, this system of evaluating electronics housings gives real meaning to the term “waterproof,” by giving real tests that must be passed at different levels. Waterproof enclosures have been a necessity for years, and there are a lot of great, proven design elements we can explore, so your design comes out right from the first prototype. We’re not the first people to ask that question. Of course, when you’re designing a smart phone case to keep rainwater from ruining a $749 phone, your requirements are slightly different than when you’re designing an electronics housing for monitoring deep sea drilling equipment. One problem is that the term “waterproof” is subjective. Whether or not you’re making the next breakout electronics product, waterproof enclosures are used in all types of industry, from oil fields to iPhone cases, and we’re about to explore the necessary design aspects to make sure you never ruin your company’s four thousand-dollar prototype again. But now, for my young nephew’s generation, pictures are too static, largely due to one innovation: GoPro.Ī drop-proof, waterproof camera that everyone and their curmudgeonly uncle has and uses to capture the most mundane aspects of their vacations-and that semi-pros use to capture underwater video and crazy adventures-I’m really impressed with the robustness of the GoPro’s housing design and how foolproof the seals are. Remember National Geographic from 30 years ago? I spent hours poring through images of life at the extremes: expeditions in glacial caves, Amazon insects, Saharan dust storms, and underwater coral.
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