Data Center Liquid Cooling Systems Served by Sanitary Valves
- Coolant Distribution Unit (CDU): Coolant supply and return pipeline, and stainless steel liquid cooling loop inside CDU, for coolant flow control and regulation.
- Data Center Secondary Loop: Secondary fluid network connecting CDU to GPU Racks, for DI water and ethylene glycol-based coolants flow.
- AI Rack / Server Rack Cooling: pipe branches connecting to server rack manifolds, especially for Direct To Chip liquid cooling
- Edge Data Center Liquid Cooling System: High clean and dead leg free, suitable for heat exchanging loop
How Sanitary Valves and Fittings Connect to AI Liquid Cooling Infrastructure
Why AI Data Centers Need Liquid Cooling
Since 2023, AI computing power has been growing in an explosive scale. According to industry analysis from Uptime Institute and IDC, in 2025 global investment in AI data center infrastructure increased by 35% to 50%. Liquid cooling systems have rapidly surpassed traditional air cooling as the main cooling solution in AI data centers. For example, it is estimated that 8-15% of facility CapEx (IT equipment excluded) was invested in direct to chip liquid cooling. Why is liquid cooling so important for AI data centers? The reason is simple. AI servers, especially GPU clusters generate so much heat! Nowadays, the total power of a single AI rack can reach 40kW-120kW, 10 times that of a traditional server rack. Traditionally air fans cannot efficiently remove such extremely high density of heat. With much higher heat dissipation capacity and lower energy consumption, liquid cooling system can ensure 24/7 stable operation of GPU servers.
Why Sanitary Valves and Fittings Are Ideal for Data Center Liquid Cooling
Modern data centers liquid cooling system primarily use DI water, ethylene glycol and other low conductivity liquid as coolant fluids. The coolant circulates continuously in the closed liquid cooling loop. The pipeline must maintain at extremely high hygiene level without any contamination or clogging. Sanitary valves, sanitary tubing and tri clamp fittings designed for food and pharmaceutical industries offer several valuable characteristics for data center liquid cooling application. Made of Hygienic SS 316L stainless steel material and equipped with EPDM and FKM sealing materials, sanitary valves and fittings can provide high cleanliness circulating channel for liquid coolant, minimize risk of pipeline clogging and coolant leakage, and support CDUs, secondary fluid network and GPU racks for long term stable and reliable operation. Check below for more details on the value that DFY valves deliver to data center liquid cooling.
Where Sanitary Valves and Fittings Fit In Data Center Liquid Cooling Loops
Most of AI data centers adopt cold plate direct-to-chip liquid cooling architecture. The whole liquid cooling infrastructure consists of four modules: Primary Loop, CDU ( Coolant Distribution Unit ), Secondary Loop, and GPU Cold Plate Loop.
Primary Loop ( Facility Water System )
Primary loop is also known as Facility Water System ( FWS ). It transports industrial chilled water from chilled water plant to CDU. In this section, DN100-DN300 large size butterfly valves work as isolation valves and flow control valves on the main supply and return pipelines to CDU for shut off, flow regulation and maintenance segmentation.
CDU ( Coolant Distribution Unit )
CDU is the central station for heat exchanging between primary loop and secondary loop. Inside CDU tri clamp butterfly valves and control valves are installed on stainless steel piping, filling and draining system, and both sides of pump and heat exchanger. They provide flow control and maintenance segmentation.
Secondary Loop ( Thermal Control System)
The secondary loop, also called Thermal Control System ( TCS ) or Secondary Fluid Network ( SFN ), is the closed loop circuit that distributes chilled coolant from CDUs to each GPU server rack, and returns the heated liquid back into CDU for heat exchanging. Butterfly valves are usually installed on the main supply and return pipeline, and in-row piping, and ball valves are installed on branches to GPU racks. They work for separated shutoff, maintenance isolation and coordinated system protection.
In this section, stainless steel tubing, tri clamps, high pressure clamps, stainless steel elbows and other liquid cooling fittings are all in sanitary grade.
Our Valves and Fittings For Liquid Cooling
In data center liquid cooling application, liquid cooling valves and liquid cooling fittings shall be in sanitary grade. DFY designs and fabricates full range of sanitary valves, fittings and tubing. All products follow DIN sanitary standards, and are compatible with deionized water (DI water), ethylene glycol solutions, and other low-conductivity coolants. The portfolio of our valves and fittings covers complete types with different functions and full size specifications for different installation points across the whole liquid cooling infrastructure. Below are specific details.
Sanitary butterfly valve is the most popular kind of liquid cooling valve. It plays very important role among liquid cooling components in stainless steel liquid cooling loop.
Sanitary ball valve is a kind of compact isolation valve designed for rack level flow control in secondary fluid distribution network.
Sanitary check valve can prevent cooling liquid from reverse flow and keep stable pressure drop in the whole cooling loop.
Sanitary diaphragm valve is a kind of precision control valves. Its zero dead-leg design can keep coolant in high purity and aseptic condition.
Mini ball valves are auxiliary compact shut-off valves. They provide supplementary service for coolant sampling and high density in-rack loop with limited space.
High pressure clamps provide high pressure sealing and vibration resistant connection for data center liquid cooling loops.
Tri clamp fittings help prefabrication of liquid cooling loops with fast assembly and high maintenance efficiency.
Sanitary flanges offer high pressure sealed connection for main supply and return line with low maintenance.
Purified and Reliable Stainless Steel Material
DFY only adopts SS 316L stainless steel for its liquid cooling valves and fittings. The element of molybdenum (Mo) enhances anti-corrosion ability and reduces metal ion release. This significantly protects the cooling liquid from contamination and prevents coolant conductivity rise. Meanwhile the internal surface roughness can reach Ra ≤ 0.6 μm by mechanical polishing and electro polishing. This provides high cleanliness and low flow resistance environment for the coolant, and ensures smooth flow with minimized particle accumulation. The micro channels of the cold plate are well protected from clogging.
Leak-free & Long Life Sealing
High-density GPU cooling systems have zero tolerance for leaks. DFY optimizes the sealing structure to eliminate dead zones. The robust sealing helps prevent coolant leaks and supports continuous 24/7 operation of AI data center infrastructure. The EPDM and PTFE sealing material we select can effectively resist temperature change and chemical corrosion from DI water and ethylene glycol cooling fluids. This solution extends service life and reduces leaking risk caused by seal aging. Daily maintenance frequency in liquid cooling network is significantly minimized.
Modular Assembly and Rapid Maintenance
We provide different kinds of connections including butt weld, tri clamp and flange. Especially, tri clamp design completely follows international standard connection structure, supporting fast installation, simple and repeated assembly. This makes tri clamp ideal for skid-mounted integration and modular prefabrication of CDU and secondary fluid networks. Maintenance becomes easy and quick. Downtime is reduced. Comparing with weld connection, tri clamp significantly increases overall service efficiency.
Standard Connection Dimension
All our liquid cooling valves and fittings are manufactured with standard dimensions regulated in DIN 11850 and DIN 32676 standard. They comply with most of data center liquid cooling piping systems and eliminate troubles of mismatch during maintenance and replacement. Meanwhile, we use globally famous MAZAK brand CNC machining center to fabricate all liquid cooling components. Comparing with conventional machining equipment, it can ensure much higher dimension accuracy. Plus our stricter tolerance control criteria above DIN standard requirements, the consistent quality across different batches are well ensured. The high level of dimension standardization supports replication and scale-up of liquid cooling solutions.
Stable Supply and Fast After-sales Response
DFY runs 3,000 m² CNC machining workshop, 800 m² ISO Class 8 clean room assembly workshop, and 1,000 m² warehouse. With ample production capacity and inventory, DFY can ensure fast delivery for your order. As an original manufacturer, you can quickly reach us upon any after-sales support anytime. Furthermore, each valve and fitting is laser marked for quick traceability on its original production status. This allows us to figure out the root cause and solve issues immediately, providing robust support for your daily operation and maintenance.
Single Vendor One-Stop Supply
DFY provides full range of liquid cooling fittings and valves for data center applications, including stainless steel butterfly valve, tri clamp ball valves, check valves, butt weld fittings and tri clamp fittings. We offer the complete supply package for your data center liquid cooling project. All connection and flow control components are available within a single supply chain. Working with DFY means one order to one supplier for one project, simple, fast and efficient.
Case Studies
This project adopts cold plate D2C liquid cooling deployment. DFY specially designed butterfly valves, ball valves and tri clamp fittings with high anti-corrosion performance under tropical high temperature and high humidity ambient condition in Thailand.
This project required short lead time and cost-effective liquid cooling piping system solution. As a direct manufacturer, DFY provided stainless steel valves and fittings through ready-stock and competitive sourcing for large scale production. Both demands of reduced international logistic time and cost control were well met.
Specifications of Valve & Fittings
- Tri Clamp Butterfly Valve
- Tri Clamp Ball Valve
- Tri Clamp Check Valve
- Tri Clamp Fittings
| Driven By: | Manual or pneumatic |
| Size: | DN10~DN100, 1/2”~4” |
| Material： | SS304 or SS316L |
| Seal Material: | PTFE |
| Working Pressure: | upto 16 bar |
| Working Temperature: | -10℃ ~ +95℃ |
| Connection Dimension Standard: | 3A, DIN, ISO, SMS |
AI data center liquid cooling systems require high purity fluids. 316L stainless steel valves are designed with zero dead-leg structure and strong anti-corrosion ability. They can protect coolant such as DI water and ethylene glycol from contamination, and support the whole liquid cooling infrastructure to run stably under highly clean and reliable conditions.
Tri clamp butterfly valves support fast installation and repeatable disassembly without any on-site welding in modular skid systems. They are popular with prefabrication and modular integration of CDU skid architecture. During daily maintenance, tri clamp butterfly valves can be disassembled and replaced in very short time, which significantly reduces overall downtime of the whole liquid cooling system.
Yes. When metal material corrosion happens, metal ions will release into the coolant and raise electrical conductivity. High conductivity will increase the risk of short circuit in GPUs. Contaminated coolant can also cause clogging in micro flow channels inside cold plates, leading to GPU cooling efficiency reduction and downtime of liquid cooling systems.
Butterfly valves and sanitary fittings are installed in CDU stainless steel piping and secondary fluid network (SFN). Butterfly valves serve for system isolation, system segmentation and flow control. Sanitary fittings work for connecting tubing, changing flow direction, and flow diverting.
In data center liquid cooling loops, flow control system consists of tubing, valves, pipe fittings, safety components and so on. Sanitary tubing forms the core framework of liquid cooling distribution network. Sanitary valves are in charge of isolation, flow shut-off and regulation. Sanitary fittings are responsible for modular connection and pipe branching.
