Category Archives: Cool Products

Containment products that are new and interesting.

The secret’s out about PolarDam

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This month we followed our customers’ lead and ‘let the cat out of the bag‘ about all the ways to use PolarDam Air Dam Foam to seal off air gaps throughout the data center.

polardam_air_dam_foam_promoYou probably remember the old story about 3M’s accidental invention of Post-It Notes.

bitcoin-aha-momentThe invention of PolarDam Air Dam Foam was a little like that:

  • Accidental product insight
  • Simple solution to a real problem
  • Subsequent use case proliferation

If you spend as much time with customers as Polargy does, you become very familiar with the details and nuance of their challenges. This means we’re often positioned to solve—and even anticipate—customer problems with innovative containment solutions.

Almost more importantly (for business), staying close to a large number of varied customers allows Polargy to recognize common pain points across the market.

polardam_air_dam_foamIn the PolarDam case, our customer needed to close about a hundred air gaps of varying sizes, and it was clear that brush grommets weren’t going to get the job done. The high cost of brush grommets alone made them a bad option but they also just didn’t work.

IMG_6064Together with the customer, we developed a simple, customizable air gap sealing solution that beats brush grommets every time in terms of fit, cost and flexibility. It was clear to us immediately that the same air gap challenges this customer had were common to data centers everywhere.

So that’s where it started, but now it’s taken on a life of its own. I even made a video about it.

“Everyone knows that air leakage reduces data center cooling efficiency. The best kept secret for sealing air gaps is PolarDam Air Dam Foam.”

And here’s a little gallery of some of the most popular PolarDam applications:

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Normal cable cutouts where you could use a brush grommets (but prefer PolarDam’s far lower cost)

 

PolarDam 2

Odd-shaped or obstructed cutouts that no brush grommet will fit

 

IMG_1126

2-post racks, either on top or through the floor

 

 

photo 1Blanking inside racks when you’re blanking off an entire 1U or 2U (or more) but especially when you’re running cables out through the front of the rack. Try to do that with a rigid blanking panel.

 

PolarDam 3Pipe penetrations through a floor or near a wall…

…and there are so many more.

The important thing to remember is that PolarDam closes all these air gaps in seconds. No tools, no measuring, no messy drilling. Just tear it to the perfect size and push it into place with your hands.

Just one part number: PD24

Soften the Blow with CRAC Dampers

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This past week, while visiting data centers in Michigan, we discovered that one of our customers was in the midst of deploying about ten CRAC damper/extensions on their legacy floor units. The customer had upgraded their cooling system to have rooftop units ducted to the raised floor, but kept the floor units around for backup. Upgrading cooling systems is a normal part of a datacenter’s lifecycle, but our customer was running into a few problems during the process. Their issue was that these existing floor units effectively acted as “big holes in the floor” that allowed air to leak back through them and into the room.

This same problem is sometimes associated with the deployment of either hot or cold aisle containment in legacy sites where the goal is typically to turn off CRAC units (those not equipped with VFDs). However, once a CRAC unit is turned off, it effectively becomes that “big hole,” leaking cold air back through the unit and reducing the efficiency of the data center’s HVAC system. In the past, Polargy has offered CRAC Covers to help prevent that leakage, which is fine when units are manually turned on and off. The covers won’t work for CRAC units that are remotely controlled on and off such as those connected to a DCiM, for obvious reasons. This is the case for our customer in Michigan. So, what can be done?

CRAC Damper Top Mounted

CRAC Damper Top Mounted

Dampers can become the solution for this problem. CRAC Dampers are custom built to the size of the unit and the height is also specified for each individual project. These are delivered as large, rectangular boxes and are simply attached to the tops of the units with sheet screws. Since the damper assembly impedes access to the CRAC unit from above, filters are installed above the dampers on flanges that are built into the extension. The easiest and simplest way to add dampers to an existing CRAC unit is to mount gravity operated dampers to the tops of the units. This is exactly what our customer was doing during our visit. The damper housing was about 18” tall to also act as an extension, grabbing hotter air from higher up in the room.

Gravity Operated Louvers

Gravity Operated Louvers

Just like our Michigan customer, check on your CRAC units. If you know they will be manually controlled, CRAC Covers can be a good solution. For the CRAC units connected to a monitoring system that dynamically controls them, dampers are the way to go.

Customer Does Home Test on Burning Properties

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A customer did a burn test on Polargy’s PolarDAM Air Dam Foam and posted it on Youtube. Of course, we were happy to see that the foam performs as specified and is self extinguishing.

Interestingly, I visited another customer who had put a few pieces of our air dam foam in an environmental test chamber to see how well it withstands high temperatures and varying temperatures. I had no idea that they were doing this until my visit. We examined the sample pieces and could see no indication of the foam decaying. I was surprised to learn he had this test running for the past three months.