Test for LED Street Light

LED street light usually far away from us, if a light failure, we need to transport all the necessary equipment and tools, and it requires technical to repair it. It takes time and maintenance cost is heavy. So testing is a vital aspect. The testing of LED street light including waterproof or ingress protection (IP) test, temperature test, impact protection(IK) test, aging test, and so on.

Ingress protection(IP) test

It determines if the light will protect the working parts from water, dust, or solid object intrusion, keeping the product electrically safe and lasting longer. IP testing provides a repeatable test standard to compare enclosure protection. How does the IP rating stand for? The first digit in the IP rating stands for the level of protection against a solid object from a hand to dust, and the second digit in the IP rating stands for the level of protection against pure water from 1mm of rainfall to temporary immersion up to 1m.

Take IP65 for example, “6” means no ingress of dust, “5” means protected against water jets from any angle. IP65 test requires pressure 30kPa at a distance of 3m, with water volume 12.5 liters per minute, test duration 1 minute per square meter for at least 3 minutes. For most outdoor lighting IP65 is ok.

Some rainy regions require IP66, the “6” means protected against powerful water jets and heavy seas. IP66 test requires pressure 100kPa at a distance of 3m, with water volume 100 liters per minute, test duration 1 minute per square meter for at least 3 minutes.

Impact protection(IK) test

Standards of IK rating: IEC 62262 specifies the way enclosures should be tested for IK ratings which are defined as the level of protection the enclosures provided against external mechanical impacts.

IEC 60598-1 (IEC 60529) specifies the test method used to classify and rate the degree of protection an enclosure provides against the intrusion of various sized solid objects from fingers and hands to fine dust and the protection against water intrusion from falling drops to a high-pressure water jet.

IEC 60598-2-3 is the International Standard for Luminaires for Road and Street Lighting.

IK ratings are defined as IKXX, where “XX” is a number from 00 to 10 indicating the degrees of protection provided by electrical enclosures (including luminaires) against external mechanical impacts. The IK rating scale identifies the ability of an enclosure to resist impact energy levels measured in joules (J). IEC 62262 specifies how the enclosure must be mounted for testing, the atmospheric conditions required, the quantity and distribution of the test impacts, and the impact hammer to be used for each level of IK rating.

Impact Protection (Ik) Classifications

IK00 Not protected

IK01 Protected against the impact of 0.25 kg dropped from 56mm (0.14 joules)

IK02 Protected against the impact of 0.25kg dropped from 80mm (0.2 joules)

IK03 Protected against the impact of 0.25kg dropped from 140mm (0.35 joules)

IK04 Protected against the impact of 0.25kg dropped from 200mm (0.5 joules)

IK05 Protected against the impact of 0.25kg dropped from 280mm (0.7 joules)

IK06 Protected against the impact of 0.25kg dropped from 400mm (1 joule)

IK07 Protected against the impact of 0.5kg dropped from 400mm (2 joules)

IK08 Protected against the impact of 1.7kg dropped from 300mm (5 joules)

IK09 Protected against the impact of 5kg dropped from 200mm (10 joules)

IK10 Protected against the impact of 5kg dropped from 400mm (20 joules)

Qualified manufacture has all the test equipment. If you choose an LED street light for your project, it’s better to ask your supplier to provide all test reports.