Liquid Cooling Liquid Cooling Liquid Cooling Liquid Cooling & Thermal Management

A machined metal block mounted on a processor, with internal channels carrying coolant. Direct-to-chip plates are typically C11000 copper for its 388 W/m·K conductivity, with skived fin arrays and a brazed or welded cover forming the pressure boundary. Aluminum 6061-T6 where flux is lower or weight matters more.

Five stages. Heat rejection equipment such as chillers and dry coolers. A coolant distribution unit with pumps, heat exchanger, filtration and manifold. Vertical rack manifolds with quick disconnects. Server cold plates with covers and port fittings. Plus the enclosures, frames and brackets holding all of it. MES makes machined, cast or extruded components at every stage.

The contact face must sit flush against the die or lid. Any deviation leaves a gap the TIM has to fill, and TIM conducts far worse than copper. A plate out by a few hundredths passes dimensional inspection and still causes the processor to throttle. Specify flatness across the die footprint and verify across the lot.

Skiving peels thin fins directly from the solid base, leaving no joint between fin and plate. Brazed fin stacks introduce a thermal interface exactly where heat transfer matters most. Skiving supports fins a few tenths of a millimeter thick at tight pitch.

Yes — manifold bodies, distribution headers, valve and sensor bosses and enclosure structures in 6061-T6 aluminum and 316 stainless, plus investment cast pump volutes and housings. Pumps, heat exchanger plates and controls are sourced or OEM-supplied.

Copper conducts roughly twice as well and is the default on high-flux accelerators. Aluminum is a third of the density and materially cheaper, making it better on lower flux, weight-critical builds and large-area plates. Most platforms use both. MES machines both.

Duty on covered copper articles is now assessed on the full customs value of the part rather than its copper content. A cold plate carries substantial machining, brazing and testing value beyond the raw metal, so the dutiable base grew considerably. Origin routing and melt-and-pour documentation now materially affect landed cost.

Copper, aluminum and stainless with coolant as electrolyte is a galvanic cell. Material selection, inhibitor chemistry and plating have to be considered together. Nickel plating on copper is common practice in glycol loops, and the thickness and standard belong on the drawing.

Test after brazing or welding and before shipment. The cover-to-base joint is the only place in the assembly where failure is catastrophic rather than gradual. Test pressure, hold time and acceptance criteria belong on the drawing.

Yes. The same families appear in battery storage, where die cast and machined cooling plates are replacing air-cooled designs; in power conversion, where extruded and machined IGBT heat sink bases are the critical interface; in UPS; in transformers, where extruded radiator sections reject heat by convection; and in EV charging cabinets.

Same reason as on a processor. Uneven contact across a module produces uneven cell temperature, and uneven cell temperature produces uneven degradation over the life of the system. Specify flatness against the module face separately from the profile tolerance.

MES is headquartered in Columbus, Ohio with nearshore manufacturing in Monterrey, Mexico, supporting Buy American preferences and domestic-content requirements. ISO 9001:2015 certified since 2009 and NMSDC minority-certified.

Depends on tooling and fixturing — but our engineers review every drawing before a tool is cut, which is where most thermal component problems are created. Send one drawing and we will tell you what will hold as specified and what will not.