Common Ingress Protection (IP)

Ratings for Electric Motors

Enclosures of electrical equipment, per characteristics where they will be installed and
their maintenance accessibility, should offer a certain degree of Protection also known
as Ingress Protection (IP). Standard IEC 60034-5 defines the degrees of protection of
electrical equipment by means of the characteristic letters IP, followed by two
characteristic numerals. NEMA also defines IP ratings for enclosures. Read IEC Ingress
Protection Ratings. Read also : NEMA Ingress Protection Ratings

The IEC and NEMA IP ratings are defined for all spectrum of equipment used in an
environment where dust, particles, water etc can compromise their performance.
However specifically for motors, the standards define the below listed commonly used
IP ratings such that there can be no misinterpretation:

Second Characteristic
First Characteristic Numeral
Degree of Numeral
Motor
Protection Protected Against Protected Against Solid
Protected Against Water
Accidental Contact Objects
IP00 Non-Protected Non-Protected Non-Protected
Protected against dripping
IP02 Non-Protected Non-Protected water even when tilted 15°
vertically
Protection against Ingress of solid objects
Protection against dripping
IP11 accidental contact exceeding 50mm in
water falling vertically
with the hand diameter
Protection against Ingress of solid objects Protected against dripping
IP12 accidental contact exceeding 50mm in water even when tilted 15°
with the hand diameter vertically
Open Protection against Ingress of solid objects Protected against dripping
Motors IP13 accidental contact exceeding 50mm in water even when tilted 60°
with the hand diameter vertically
Protection against the Ingress of solid objects
Protection against dripping
IP21 touching with the exceeding 12mm in
water falling vertically
finger diameter
Protection against the Ingress of solid objects Protected against dripping
IP22 touching with the exceeding 12mm in water even when tilted 15°
finger diameter vertically
Protection against the Ingress of solid objects Protected against dripping
IP23 touching with the exceeding 12mm in water even when tilted 60°
finger diameter vertically
 Ingress of solid objects
Protection against the Protection against splashing
IP44 exceeding 1mm in
touching with tools water from any direction
diameter
Protection against
Closed Protection against Protection against splashing
IP54 accumulation of
Motors contacts water from any direction
harmful dust
Protection against Protection against any
Protection against
IP55 accumulation of water jets from any
touches
harmful dust direction

For special and more dangerous areas where electric motors are required to be
applied, the following degrees of protection are commonly used:
IPW 55 (Weather protection)
IP56 (Protections against water jets)
IP65 (Totally protected against dust)
IP66 (Totally protected against dust and water jets).