What Is the IP Rating System?

The IP rating system—which stands for the Ingress Protection rating system—is a worldwide recognized scale designed to represent an enclosures effectiveness at protecting its electronic/mechanical internals from infiltration by external solid and liquid matter.

For example, our industrial scales in Montana have to keep water and dust out of their internals while working under intense pressure, often outdoors. This means they need to be tightly sealed against ingress by solid and liquid matter, which means they need to have a high IP rating.

The IP rating system

There are two numbers in an IP rating. The first number represents how much protection the enclosure provides against solids in the environment, and the second number is how much it protects against liquids. The first number is from 0, meaning no protection from solids, to 6, meaning that no solid, not even dust, can infiltrate the enclosure.

The second in the rating is again from 0, meaning no protection from liquids, to 9K, meaning it is totally protected from water, against total immersion and against high-pressure close-range sprays and jets of water, even high-temperature intense jets of water. This means that the worst rating an enclosure can have is an IP00, and the best rating any enclosure can have is an IP69K.

Why is it important?

High-IP-rated enclosures are important for any food-related business, where hygiene of both people and machines is of the utmost importance. They’re also important for any enclosure that is protecting the delicate internals of a machine that does its work outdoors. Our industrial scales in Montana have high IP ratings, as they need to be able to withstand the elements under high-pressure situations, while also holding a lot of weight.

Lower-IP-rated enclosures might be less of a disadvantage if what they’re protecting is not particularly delicate, or prone to spoilage, but for industrial usage, something like our industrial scales, the lower-IP-rated enclosures just don’t hold up to their repeated punishing usage. One downside of low IP ratings that most people fail to consider is that, if a machine has a low water-protection rating, this is going to change how you clean the machine. It’s important for an industrial scale, for example, to be able to be pressure washed with jets of water. This saves our industrial customers time, and a lot of money in the aggregate.

Get high quality industrial scales in Montana

Rockwell Scales provides high quality American-made agricultural, industrial and truck scales to a varied and industrious worldwide clientele. Our industrial scales are used every day by the companies that produce the food, electronics, clothing and more that we use and consume. Our scales are just one small part of the industrial and commercial infrastructure that helps keep your fridge stocked with food and your business supplied with the latest in time-saving technology—but they are an important part, nonetheless. If you’re in the market for industrial scales in Montana, give us a call today at Rockwell Scales. We only provide the best American-made products. Not every industrial scale company these days can say that!

Categorised in: Industrial Scales

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