Partnerships Key to Tackling Data Centre Heat Challenges
Data centre operators face mounting thermal management challenges as high-powered chips generate increasing heat loads, requiring specialised thermal interface materials to transfer heat to air-cooling systems.
At Henkel's Adhesive Technologies business, I work directly with data centre and telecommunications companies to develop custom thermal solutions through collaborative engineering processes. I get the opportunity to work with lots of big data and telecom companies and while their challenges are similar, their specific needs are never the same.
Henkel's engineering team focuses on understanding each customer's requirements before developing tailored thermal interface materials. These materials serve as the critical link between heat-generating chips and cooling systems, ensuring proper heat dissipation in data centre environments.
When I was studying chemical engineering at the University of Minnesota, I had a professor who said: "You might not remember everything you learn here, but you will remember the skill of problem solving."
This approach proves essential when addressing thermal management challenges, as no two problems are identical despite similarities across the industry.
Developing thermal test vehicles for validation
The development process involves multiple stages, from material selection through formula development to performance testing. At Henkel, we produce custom thermal test vehicles that replicate real-world applications, enabling validation that thermal interface materials can maintain performance over a minimum shelf life of 10 years.
The testing process requires coordination between Henkel's laboratories and customer facilities. The customer also has to test it within their system in order to validate that performance.
Here, we have to work together to make sure we get the most accurate results so we can stick to tight development schedules.
This dual testing approach allows both parties to verify thermal performance under actual operating conditions whilst maintaining project timelines. The thermal test vehicles simulate the exact thermal loads and environmental conditions that materials will encounter in deployed systems.
Customer collaboration extends beyond testing phases into the fundamental design and specification process. Our engineers work to understand each operator's specific thermal management requirements, cooling infrastructure, and operational constraints before beginning material development.
Henkel engineers adapt to customer operational requirements
The collaborative approach requires our team to align with customer methodologies and operational practices. As engineers, we have to learn how the customer does things, we have to speak their language and we have to align with their ways of working. Neither Henkel nor the customer can do it alone – we have to work together.
The development process involves multiple stages, from material selection through formula development to performance testing. At Henkel, we produce custom thermal test vehicles that replicate real-world applications, enabling validation that thermal interface materials can maintain performance over a minimum shelf life of 10 years.
The testing process requires coordination between Henkel's laboratories and customer facilities. The customer also has to test it within their system in order to validate that performance. Here, we have to work together to make sure we get the most accurate results so we can stick to tight development schedules.
This dual testing approach allows both parties to verify thermal performance under actual operating conditions whilst maintaining project timelines. The thermal test vehicles simulate the exact thermal loads and environmental conditions that materials will encounter in deployed systems.
Customer collaboration extends beyond testing phases into the fundamental design and specification process. Our engineers work to understand each operator's specific thermal management requirements, cooling infrastructure, and operational constraints before beginning material development.
Preparing for the liquid cooling transition
The collaborative approach requires our team to align with customer methodologies and operational practices. As engineers, we have to learn how the customer does things, we have to speak their language and we have to align with their ways of working.
Neither Henkel nor the customer can do it alone – we have to work together.
Immersion cooling technology may follow liquid cooling adoption, presenting additional material requirements. These cooling methods submerge entire server components in specialised fluids, requiring thermal interface materials compatible with direct fluid contact whilst maintaining thermal transfer properties.
At the moment, our customers mainly use air cooling for their data centres, but in the next few years, we might see liquid cooling become more widely adopted. Then, after that, we might see immersion cooling come into the picture too.
Each cooling technology transition requires extensive material testing and validation processes. Our development approach involves creating new thermal test vehicles that replicate the specific conditions of emerging cooling technologies, ensuring thermal interface materials perform reliably across different operational environments.
The company's application engineering team continues developing materials for current air-cooling systems whilst simultaneously researching solutions for future liquid and immersion cooling applications. This parallel development approach enables faster deployment when customers transition to new cooling technologies.
These new systems are coming, and they will present a whole new set of problems to the data centre and telecom industry.
But that's what's exciting – our job as application engineers is to solve these problems. Which is exactly what we will do.
Tho Nguyen, Principal Application Engineer for Henkel’s Adhesive Technologies business, supports the company’s telecom and datacom market sector. With an application engineering career spanning more than 10 years, Tho has expertise in fluoropolymers and thermal interface materials, holds two B.S. degrees (Chemical Engineering and Mathematics) from the University of Minnesota. In his current role, Tho is focused on thermal interface materials for use in telecom infrastructure and data centre applications and is based in Henkel’s Chanhassen, MN facility.
Disclosure: This article is an advertorial, and monetary payment was received from Henkel. It has passed Editorial’s assessment for being informative.
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