IP stands for Ingress Protection and electrical equipment often have an IP rating. This tells you how resistant it is to dust and fluid. The IP Rating is a simple encoding that covers a range of international standards for enclosures and electrical equipment up to 1000V A.C. and 1200V D.C.
In LED displays, the rating code commonly consists of 2 numbers (e.g. IP56) that tell you the amount of protection a given product has against dust and water. Each digit represents the degree of protection against one of the environmental factors. The first number is for solid particle ingress, and the second is for liquids ingress. The meanings of the numbers are given in the following table:
| # | First Number (Dust) | Second Number (Fluid) |
|---|---|---|
| 0 | No Protection | No Protection |
| 1 | Solid objects over 50mm (i.e. accidental touch by hands) | Vertically falling drops of water |
| 2 | Solid objects over 12mm (i.e. accidental touch by fingers) | Direct sprays up to 15° from the vertical. |
| 3 | Solid objects over 2.5mm (i.e. accidental touch tools and wires) | Direct sprays up to 60° from the vertical. |
| 4 | Solid objects over 1mm (i.e. small wires) | Water sprayed from all direction with limited ingress permitted |
| 5 | Dust - limited ingress with no harmful deposits | Low pressure jets of water from all direction with limited ingress permitted |
| 6 | Dust - total with no ingress | Strong jets of water from all direction with limited ingress permitted |
| 7 | - | Immersion between 15cm and 1 m with no ingress |
| 8 | - | Long periords of Immersion with no ingress |