Do you know what is an Ingress Protection rating?
Sometimes you get confused when you are presented with the full form when you actually know the short one!
It was an early problem in Google Maps when it normally tells the full form of a road or street while we always knew the short form! Like Sadar Patrappa road! That sounds like a confusing road in Bangalore while the fact is that everyone knows the short form SP road!
When I was asked a question in a interview, Who is Inder Kumar G? I was really confused! The interviewer understood! He then mischievously asked, “Don’t you know I K Gujral!?”
Now coming to the Ingress Protection rating! It is simply IP rating which we all know! Of course the minute details may not be known to all but the term IP rating is almost general knowledge in the era of Mobile Phones!
Everyone knows how electric and electronic equipment deteriorate or malfunction when water or dust enters the device. The older mobile phones falling on a puddle of water was a death sentence! To know how much dust and water your phone can ‘tolerate’ the
The IEC or International Electrotechnical Commission has developed the ingress protection (IP) ratings, which grade the resistance of an enclosure against the intrusion of dust or liquids.
The first edition of IEC 60529 was published in 1976 with the aim of creating a single document to bring together all requirements regarding protection by enclosures.
The IP code is composed of two numerals:
The first numeral refers to the protection against solid objects and is rated on a scale from 0 (no protection) to 6 (no ingress of dust).
The second numeral rates the enclosure’s protection against liquids and uses a scale from 0 (no protection) to 9 (high-pressure hot water from different angles).
There are also levels of protection against immersion at varying depth and levels of drops protection in the solid category
While the top most liquid protection is 9 which is the Protection against high-pressure, high-temperature jet sprays, washdowns or steam-cleaning procedures!
A typical rating for solid objects like say IP 6, means it lets in very little dust and dirt, and a water-R rating of 8 indicates it can be submerged in water for minutes at a time.
A phone with those specs would earn an IP68 rating!
Now, high IP rating actually indicates that when dust and water does make its way through a phone’s seams, it won’t enter in quantities to cause malfunction!
However, the rating system was not designed to be mutually inclusive, meaning an IP67 certification does not automatically equate to certificates for grades 1-6!
Of course the ratings are only one assessment for buying the phone! Many do take these into consideration but with the advent of Flip and Fold phones; there are some adjustments!
For now just make sure that whatever be the rating; water and dust is not a good friend of your phone!
If that’s over your head then head over to read about the one who took the Britishers in their own turf! Chettur Sankaran Nair !
One of the many freedom fighters forgotten and almost lost from memory! Do read about him…
Shubh ratri…
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