As we know, there are many technical standards to measure the classes of electrical enclosures and how resistant they are to the avoidance of certain materials. NEMA ratings and IP ratings are two different methods to define the degrees of protection against substances such as water and dust, although they use different methods to test and parameters to define their enclosure types. Both of them are similar measurements, but they still have some differences.

The distinguish between NEMA ratings and IP ratings which the former include the protection of external ice, corrosive materials, oil immersion, dust, and water, while the latter only include the protection of dust and water. It means NEMA cover more supplementary protection standards such as corrosion materials to IP. In other words, there is no direct conversion between them. NEMA standards satisfied or exceed the IP ratings. On the other hand, IP ratings do not necessarily meet NEMA standards, since NEMA includes additional product features and tests that are not offered by the IP rating system. For the field of the application, NEMA is general provided to industrial applications and primarily used in North America, whereas IP ratings could cover a set of applications worldwide.

In summary, there is a correlation between NEMA ratings and IP ratings. Nevertheless, this is a concern to dust and water. Although it is possible to compare these two testings, the comparison is only related to the protection provided against dust and moisture. Some manufacturers of mobile devices will include NEMA ratings in their specifications, and it is significant to understand how the NEMA specification correlates to its IP ratings.