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IEC 60068-2-18 Rain Ingress Testing

IEC 60068-2-18 rain testing provides methods of test applicable to products that can be susceptible to water exposure this exposure can occur during transportation, storage or in service. The exposure can be subjected to falling water drops, impacting water, immersion or high-pressure water impact.

The primary purpose of water tests is to verify the ability of enclosures, covers and seals to maintain components and equipment in good working order after and, when necessary, under a standardized drop field or immersion in water.

IEC 60068-2-18 water testing is not corrosion testing. Established water tests in other standards are not intended to simulate natural rainfall and their quoted intensities are too high to be adopted for that purpose. Therefore, in addition to the high-intensity severities, this testing includes an artificial rain test based upon natural conditions. However, this testing does not take into account high wind speeds generally associated with natural rain.

The water tests applied by an IEC 60068-2-18 water test lab are structured into three groups.

  • Falling drops are a test with artificial rain and a test simulating falling drops from condensation or leakage.
  • Impacting water is where water jets impinge upon the test specimen with a certain force and may assume any angle towards the test specimen.
  • Immersion is where the test specimen is immersed in water to specified depths or equivalent pressures.

In addition to those definitions, the IEC 60068-2-18 ingress protection testing also provides the following definitions.

  • Rain is precipitation in the form of water drops. Both the amount that falls and the actual falling action of the water drops are often called rainfall.
  • Drizzle is the precipitation in the form of very small, numerous, and uniformly dispersed water drops that may appear to float while following air currents.
  • Raindrop is a drop of water having a diameter greater than 0,5 mm falling through the atmosphere.
  • Drizzledrop is a drop of water having a diameter of 0,2 mm to 0,5 mm falling through the atmosphere
  • Rainfall intensity is given in millimeters per hour (mm/h) where 1 l/(m2 · h) equals 1 mm/h.

Expert IEC 60068-2-18 Water Ingress Protection Compliance Testing

Keystone Compliance provides IEC 60068-2-18 enclosure testing in a professional, timely and affordable manner. Our lab features a large amount of test equipment, so lead times on scheduling are never an issue. In addition to ingress protection testing, our lab also features EMC, environmental, and package testing. Regardless of the testing need, Keystone Compliance can provide the solution.

For more information on our capabilities, please contact us. If you are ready to see firsthand why so many companies rely on Keystone Compliance for their IEC 60068-2-18 water testing, please request a quote.

For more information on relative IEC 60068-2 testing standards, please follow the links below