When you are ready to buy an LED light bar online, you may see a title that says 22 "single row IP68 Offroad LED light bar. But what does IP68 mean? Let's learn more about the IP rating.
IP is short for Ingress Protection. The IP rating is a complete method of classifying products by the degree of dust, water and collision resistance of electronic equipment and packaging, published by the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC). The equivalent European standard is EN 60529.
What does the IP Rating Mean?
Example: the IP mark –IP69k
The IP is followed by two digits:
- 1st digit (tens) = protection against dust
- 2nd digit (units) = protection against water
The IP69K test specification was originally developed for off-road vehicles and construction equipment that are susceptible to extreme dirty conditions, which require frequent deep cleaning with high-pressure water. Shortly thereafter, the IP69k standard evolved to be usable in other industries, many industries, and many products.
It is often mistaken for IP67 to be more waterproof than IP66. As can be seen in the table above, the description and test conditions of IPX6 and IPX7 are not the same. IPX6 is strongly sprayed with water, while IPX7 is immersed in water for a short time, and it is generally immersed for 1 minute underwater for 30 minutes. Because the test purpose and test conditions are not consistent, it cannot be considered that IP67 has a higher protection level than IP66.
So you need to think about what kind of environment you will be driving your vehicle before buying and then choose the IP rating.