When manufacturers develop consumer products, it is advantageous to engineer in a useful degree of water resistance to help prevent unintentional damage, and to stay competitive in a tough market.

A widely-used benchmark in industry to judge a product’s level of water resistance are known as Water Ingress-Protection (IPX) standards. By subjecting a product to various amounts of water in a controlled environment, and observing how deep water has penetrated, an appropriate IPX-rating can then be assigned to that product that informs consumers about its level of water resistivity.

Unfortunately, it is very costly for companies to undergo IPX testing of their products. Most testing machines available to purchase are not only excessively pricey, but they only test at most two standards. Due to this high initial cost, companies often outsource testing, but consequently suffer from extreme lead times for important feedback hindering further development.

SONOS has given our team the task of developing an inexpensive, first-of-its-kind tester that will be able to test the first five IPX standards; the first (IPX-1) being equivalent to light rainfall, and the fifth (IPX-5) being a high-flow jet. This tester will also be in-house right at SONOS’s fingertips, giving them confidence in their products’ water ingress protection level before being sent out for official certification.