Dear Albert,

When you need enclosures that protect electrical equipment from rough environment, vandalism or other mechanical impacts, you should select a solution with a high impact protection, or IK rating. This is a 00 to 10 code system defined by the DIN EN 50102 (VDE 0470-100) standards. The lowest values mean that the product offers limited to no resistance to impact energy levels, while IK10 indicates that the enclosure is protected against 20 joules impacts. This is equivalent to the impact of a 5 kg mass dropped from 400 mm above the impacted surface.

An equivalent rating for North American customers is the f1 or f2 certification in accordance with Underwriter Laboratories (UL) 746C requirements. In this case, the equipment is hit by a steel ball with a diameter of 50.8 mm and weight of 0.535 kg.

Spelsberg offers electrical enclosures with IK and UL ratings to support even the most demanding application, where the equipment is exposed to mechanical stress. In particular, we can address IK05 to IK10 requirements with multiple solutions to suit different environmental conditions.

The necessary DIN EN/VDE and UL tests to ensure compliance are performed by our quality specialists at our in-house test laboratory. This is fully certified according to DIN EN 60670-1, 60670-22, 60529 and UL standards to verify the mechanical resistance of our products, as well as many other properties, including ingress and heat protection.

For additional information on enclosure protection against mechanical stress and IK codes, please visit: https://www.spelsberg.com/service/technical-information/technical-information/assembly-and-installation-notes/

To learn more about Spelsberg’s testing capabilities, please read: https://www.spelsberg.co.uk/customising/testing-laboratory/testing-according-to-vde-and-ul/

If you have additional questions on our range of enclosures with high IK ratings or specific requests for your intended application, please feel free to send me a private message to discuss them.

Regards,

Chris