Technological innovation in electronic cooling

Increasing packing density in server cabinets and ever-increasing power throughput are becoming a challenge for electronics cooling. ebm-papst has developed the new high-performance DiaForce diagonal compact fan specially for applications with high availability requirements, e.g. in data centre or base stations for mobile communications.

Until now, axial compact fans have been used predominantly for electronics cooling, but with ever higher cooling capacity and more compact designs, they are pushed to their limits. There is little space in these applications and it is often impossible to simply install more or larger fans. In order to keep increasing the cooling capacity nevertheless, two axial compact fans with counter-rotating rotors are often installed, but this results in greater energy consumption and significantly more operating noise. To meet these special challenges, ebm-papst has taken a different approach and developed the DiaForce diagonal compact fan.

Diagonal instead of axial

As with an axial compact fan, the DiaForce also draws in and blows out air in an axial direction. Compared to a centrifugal fan, this presents design-related advantages for integration into the application. The benefit of the DiaForce lies in the unique geometry of its impeller and housing, which minimises turbulence and enables a greater pressure increase at the same time. This aerodynamic optimisation significantly reduces noise by 6 dB(A) and provides up to 50 percent higher air performance. However, this is often not required in normal operation, as fans in electronics cooling frequently only operate in partial-load operation. Yet a sufficient power reserve is crucial for operational reliability in these sensitive areas.

The diagonal compact fan is used to cool electronics with high availability requirements, such as in data center for the 5G standard, autonomous driving or cloud services. Thanks to its features, the DiaForce already fulfills the future requirements of electronics cooling. The first samples of the DiaForce are already available; series production of the size 119×119 mm will start in spring 2021.