"The data center is surrounded by sensitive electronic components. The leakage or quality event of the whole liquid cooling system in the connection link may cause a very serious safety accident.
Therefore, the reliability and absolute sealing of the liquid cooled quick connector are very important—— Lie Lijun, General Director of Water Cooling Business in Staubli China
The application of liquid cooling technology in the data center is also speeding up with the proposal of the double carbon target and the full launch of the East Data and West Calculation Project. As a key component connecting the server node and the Manifold, the liquid cooling quick connector is indispensable in the liquid cooling system of the data center.
Recently, Staubli attended the 2022 Open Data Center Summit (ODCC) with the theme of "Enjoy the wonderful computing power and go to a low-carbon future together", and delivered a keynote speech of "Strictly control the technical threshold of liquid cooling connection, so that the data center can safely" enjoy the cool ".
Share how the data center's liquid cooling connection technology enables low carbon computing power, the role and key technologies of the liquid cooling quick connector, and the advantages and application cases of the Staubli liquid cooling quick connector.
Key Technologies of Liquid Cooled Quick Coupler
The liquid cooling quick connector is related to the safety of the whole liquid cooling system, making it have a higher technical threshold and more technical points. So, what are the key technologies of liquid cooled quick connector?
Waterproof sealing to ensure the equipment is clean and safe:
In the liquid cooling system, the coolant is very close to the circuit. If it leaks, the electronic components will be seriously damaged, causing short circuit or polluting the working environment. This requires the quick connector to be absolutely airtight. When disconnecting, there should be no leakage of liquid. At the same time, no impurities should enter the circuit during connection.
Fast and reliable plugging, online hot plugging in case of failure, convenient maintenance:
The data center needs to be able to operate stably for a long time, so the service provider must replace parts regularly and replace faulty components quickly. This requires that the liquid cooling quick connector must be able to support online hot plug, that is, the circuit can be safely disconnected under pressure to ensure that key components can be modularized and quickly switched during maintenance without interrupting system operation or causing system pressure loss.
High durability and material compatibility:
The metal material is more durable than the plastic material. As the main component material, it can effectively reduce the maintenance frequency of the data center. The compatibility of metal body and sealing ring of quick connector with fluid is also one of the important indicators of connector reliability.
Optimize flow pressure drop ratio and improve energy efficiency:
Reduce the pressure drop while ensuring the flow of the cooling circuit, so that the pressure required by the circuit is smaller, thus reducing the energy required for cooling.
Compact structure and space saving:
In order to further improve the available space in the server room, the quick connector should be compact in structure and can be installed in a narrow space, so that more cabinets can be installed in the limited space, thus improving the computing power of the data center.
Core Technology Achieves Product Professionalism
Staubli liquid cooled quick connector meets all the strict requirements for quick connection of data center, and has a huge standard product series. It has targeted solutions for different calibers, docking forms, material selection, connection ends, etc. At the same time, it can also customize and develop new solutions for special projects to meet differentiated needs.
For example, in terms of material selection, based on massive cases and test data, the Staubli quick connector can provide the most appropriate metal and rubber raw materials for data center applications, perfectly match different refrigerant media (water glycol/propylene glycol, deionized water, electronic fluoride solution, etc.), and lay a foundation for the reliability and durability of the quick connector.
In terms of docking form, Staubli quick connector provides manual connection and automatic connection schemes for liquid cooling application environment. Among them, the automatic connection blind plug scheme was first proposed in the industry and applied in batches. Its customized displacement tolerance technology, together with the guidance system, can compensate for connection errors up to several millimeters, which is crucial for realizing blind connection of high-density racks.
In addition, thanks to Staubli's profound application development experience, the excellent internal structure design of the Staubli quick connector can also ensure that the quick connector has the maximum flow and the minimum pressure drop loss, while achieving an extremely compact overall dimension, helping customers to design the overall structure and optimize energy consumption.
First mover advantage wins customers' favor
Staubli has more than 30 years of practical experience in liquid cooling applications, and its product expertise over the years has been recognized in the railway, aviation, nuclear power, medical and other industries.
Relying on rich application experience and advanced R&D strength, Staubli quick connector has always led the liquid cooling fast connection market, and has been constantly improving and innovating. At present, it is widely used in a large number of international data centers,
On the level of new product development, with the increasing trend of server computing density, Staubli has carried out product upgrading iteration for the traditional manual connection structure, and introduced the automatic steel ball locking connector. The locking mechanism and sealing surface of the automatic steel ball locking connector are completely independent, ensuring good sealing even after long plugging and unplugging;
The locking steel ball and locking groove structure are redesigned to make the structure more compact; For special application scenarios such as CDU, primary side/secondary side main circuit, Staubli has also developed a large caliber manual and blind plug fast connection scheme to achieve accurate connection in a narrow server space.
In the aspect of product quality control, Staubli carries out production and assembly of quick connectors in the dust-free workshop with the air cleanliness level of ISO 8 to ensure the continuous stability of cleanliness and pollution control; 100% function test and air tightness test will be conducted for each finished product before delivery;
Each finished product has a unique production batch number, which can trace the entire production process from raw materials to final finished products.
On the level of market technical support, as a multinational enterprise with a history of 130 years, Staubli has always maintained close communication in the process of cooperation, with customers including end-users as well as industry chain members such as server manufacturers.
Staubli's three production bases in Europe, Asia Pacific and North America can ensure the safety and stability of the global supply chain. In China, Staubli has built a local supply chain production base – the Hangzhou factory that radiates the Asia Pacific region. Relying on the nationwide sales and after-sales network, it can quickly respond to customers' pre-sales, sales and after-sales needs and provide front-line technical/commercial support.
At the same time, the Hangzhou factory has the local production capacity of blind plug products, and will continue to expand the product production line in the future to efficiently supply the Asia Pacific market.
At the level of ecological cooperation, Staubli has extensive cooperation with upstream and downstream of the industrial chain, such as Dawn, Inspur, Dell, HP, Google, Fujitsu, etc. It can customize products according to customer needs and provide users with the best, most secure and reliable system solutions together with partners.
Looking forward to the future, with the development of cloud computing market, the liquid cooled quick connector market will also usher in rapid development.
The Chinese market is developing very rapidly, and the overall market outlook is very optimistic. Stauber continuously develops the Chinese market, brings the best liquid cooled connector products to the Chinese market, and provides domestic customers with a more cost-effective, safer and more reliable product.