Chemical etching specialist wins contract for data centre cooling

The compact plate heat exchangers use chemically etched flow plates to transfer heat within a compact structure. They are increasingly being used in applications where conventional heat exchanger technologies can be too large, heavy or inefficient.

For data centres, this requirement is becoming more important as higher compute loads increase the need for effective thermal management. Precision Micro’s etched plates form a critical part of the manufacturing process, helping customers produce compact heat exchangers for demanding cooling applications.

“This contract is the result of a strategy we put in place several years ago,” explained Ben Kitson, head of business development at Precision Micro. “We identified growing demand for compact, high-efficiency cooling across several emerging energy applications and invested in the unique capacity and infrastructure needed to support it.

“As power densities increase, the technologies behind cooling systems must become more efficient, more compact and more reliable. Chemically etched flow plates are a strong fit for that challenge due to its ability to achieve high feature density and plate complexity.”

Precision Micro has been involved in advanced heat exchanger plate manufacture since the early development of the technology.

Its recent investment has focused on increasing large sheet capacity, expanding etching infrastructure and supporting the chemical management needed to process high volumes of material.

The company can chemically etch large-format plates up to 1.5 metres long and 610 mm wide, with material thicknesses up to 2.5 mm. This allows it to support manufacturers working with larger and thicker plates, while maintaining the accuracy, repeatability and burr-free finish associated with chemical etching.

“Compact heat exchangers are not a new market for Precision Micro, but the scale of demand is changing,” added Lee Weston, marketing manager at Precision Micro. “That growth has only been possible because of long-term investment in our etching facility, from purpose-built chemical infrastructure and latent process capacity, to high-volume production capability that was designed into the plant at its conception. Customers need suppliers with proven capability and the infrastructure to manufacture these parts at scale.”

Precision Micro supports customers from prototype through to volume production, manufacturing chemically etched components for high-tech applications. Discover more about its capabilities at precisionmicro.com.