About Waterproofing

WHAT DOES WATERPROOF MEAN?

waterproof /ˈwɔːtəpruːf/ adjective impervious to water

The IPX Scale

Some brands have tried to invent their own definitions of waterproofing. But actually an international standard already exists – so at Aquapac we use that. The international standard is called IEC 60529 – Degrees of Protection Provided by Enclosures and it was developed by a technical committee of the International Electrotechnical Commission. In the USA it has been adopted by the National Electrical Manufacturers Association (NEMA) as an American National Standard. The whole thing is dozens of pages long, this is a summary:

IP Code:	Protected against:	at Aquapac we call this:
	Vertically falling water drops	Rainproof
	Vertically falling water drops – enclosure tilted up to 15º from normal position	Rainproof
	Water falling as a spray falling at any angle up to 60º from vertical	Sprayproof
	Water splashing from any direction	Splashproof
	Water jets – water projected at all angles through a 6.3mm nozzle	Stormproof
	Powerful water jets – water projected at all angles through a 12.5mm nozzle	Stormproof
	Protected against immersion for 30 minutes to a depth of less than 3ft/1m	Submersible
	Protected against continuous immersion to a depth of 30ft/10m (see Independent Testing below).	Submersible

Independent Testing When we patented the Aquaclip® sealing system it was submitted for independent testing. IPX8 testing was for 30 minutes at the equivalent of a depth of 30ft/10m. Some of the Aquaclips proved waterproof at very much greater depths. Our Keymaster™ case for example is 100% waterproof to 165ft/50m. In-House Testing During manufacture we batch-test the IPX8 Submersible cases in our pressure chamber. We also subject them to a simple manual squeeze-in-a-basin test (sometimes it’s the real-life tests that really count!)