Industrial and IT infrastructure climate control

Efficient Climate Control Systems Reduce Energy Consumption and Costs For More Sustainable Manufacturing Practices

Regardless of whether you’re in the automotive, food and beverage, or retail and logistics industry, or deploying IT solutions at The Edge or in a data center, the need for smart, integrated industrial climate control solutions that increase energy efficiency and reduce costs is greater than ever before. Increased regulatory standards for sustainable manufacturing programs, such as the new UL/CSA 60335-2-40 Standard have also served to enhance the importance of industrial climate control systems that cut emissions, costs, and energy usage, which makes Industry 4.0 and IIoT-enabled cooling units the name of the game for today’s manufacturers.

The IT landscape has changed dramatically, evolving beyond the legacy computer room. The new IT environment starts at The Edge and goes all the way to the Cloud. Parallel with this enormous growth has been a sharp focus on climate control and thermal management driven by increasing heat loads across all installation environments.

The Climate Control QuickFinder from Rittal is a fast and easy tool to help you determine the most suitable climate control solution for your application. You just need to answer three simple questions.

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With state-of-the-art industrial climate control systems engineered with smart features like network alerts, real-time monitoring, and innovative cooling methods, producers can engineer efficient cooling where it’s needed most to reduce energy costs, increase the service life of equipment, and cut your carbon footprint for more sustainable manufacturing processes.

Greening Up the Factory White Paper
Manufacturing is at a crossroads: How can you reduce your carbon footprint while at the same time optimizing efficiency and production? This white paper outlines the steps you can take to implement sustainable manufacturing initiatives that help promote production efficiency.

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In addition, our team of expert climate specialists can also help you understand the health and viability of your existing climate control system with a climate control efficiency analysis, and our climate inventory webinar provides a behind-the-scenes look at what our climate experts look for when conducting an efficiency analysis to help you better understand the process from start to finish.

What to Look For in An Industrial Climate Control System

Like so many other elements of a modern industrial automation framework, manufacturers need industrial climate control systems that are flexible, scalable, and connected via Industry 4.0 and IIoT principles. The flexibility and scalability of enclosure cooling units helps manufacturers respond to changes in production while connectivity provides real-time insight and analytics into cooling unit performance.

In such a diverse industrial landscape where manufacturing can take place almost anywhere in the world in a variety of forms, today’s climate control units need innovative cooling mechanisms that provide targeted, efficient cooling regardless of the application.

An additional layer of complexity with industrial cooling units arises in the transition from UL 1995 compliance to the new UL/CSA 60335-2-40 Standard, which takes effect in January 2024. The new UL/CSA 60335-2-40 Standard mandates that industrial climate control systems be outfitted with smart leak detection systems to reduce their environmental impact. In addition, UL/CSA 60335-2-40 eliminates the use of high-GWP (global warming potential) refrigerants in industrial cooling systems. Companies are under increasing pressure to reduce their carbon footprint. New enclosure cooling technology can help to achieve carbon reduction and save 1 ton of carbon per year, the equivalent absorbed by over 80 beech trees. 

This means automotive manufacturers and others across a variety of industries can benefit from being proactive and must think now about how this transition of tomorrow will impact their industrial climate control systems, and how they can retrofit their network of industrial cooling units to maintain compliance without incurring downtime or disruption. The good news is Rittal provides a variety of innovative industrial cooling unit solutions that are already in compliance with the upcoming UL/CSA Standard 60335-2-40.

With innovative industrial climate control units like our Blue eBlue e+, Blue e+ Sroof mounted and wall mounted TopTherm cooling units, and IoT Interface, manufacturers can create targeted cooling where cooling is needed most to reduce energy costs, decrease your carbon footprint, and prolong the lifespan of your automation architecture. In addition, our Blue e+ chillers do not utilize the high-GWP refrigerants that are prohibited by UL/CSA 60335-2-40 — in fact, our Blue e+ chillers do not use flammable refrigerants of any kind. The Blue e+ S cooling unit uses refrigerant R-513A and has a 56% lower Global Warming Potential (GWP) rating helping companies to minimize their carbon footprint by reducing CO2 emissions, making it more environmentally friendly.

With the ability to reduce energy usage by up to 75%, our Blue e+ industrial cooling units provide manufacturers with the utmost in regulatory compliance and reduction in energy usage.

For flexibility in mounting capability and superb cooling capacity, our TopTherm Blue e cooling units can be roof mounted and provide cooling ranging from 500 W to 4,000 W, which makes them ideal for unique or challenging applications. Engineered for durability and reliability, our Air-to-Air Heat Exchangers and Air-to-Water Heat Exchangers offer a variety of mounting options (including standalone and roof-mounted), digital temperature display and user interface, and simplified integration into existing climate systems to reduce production downtime.

In addition, filter fans, thermoelectric cooling units, and a robust line of climate control accessories like spare parts and IIoT integrations provide manufacturers with easy to use climate systems designed for universal use and integration.

The ideal climate control unit for your application is out there, but the trick is understanding the critical value propositions of various industrial cooling units to identify the one that helps you overcome your climate control challenges. This white paper will help you select the right cooling unit for your needs to create efficient, targeted cooling where you need it most.

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The Right Industrial Climate Control System For the Right Application

If the manufacturing landscape is about custom solutions for unique challenges, then the industrial cooling units that manufacturers choose must align with those needs to create a truly optimized climate control system.

Rittal has enclosure climate control solutions tailored to a variety of industries like automotive, food and beverage, and retail and logistics, as well as automation architects like machine builders, panel builders, and systems integrators. UL/CSA 60335-2-40 compliance means manufacturers like you can deploy Rittal industrial cooling units in the U.S. and Canada with confidence.

Ford’s Cologne plant shut down a number of times in one year due to defective industrial cooling units. The analysis by Rittal’s service specialists showed the urgent need to repair and replace 11% of the cooling units installed. In addition, Rittal created a comprehensive plan to upgrade to energy-efficient cooling units over time, which we calculated would save the plant more than half a million euros within 10 years, with a payback period of slightly more than two years for the investment in the new cooling units.

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Industrial fan-and-filter cooling units are an effective way to dissipate heat from an enclosure and prevent the intrusion of harmful agents in ambient air. In this white paper, you’ll learn how to identify the right industrial fan-and-filter unit for use in a variety of industries.

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Today’s manufacturers must be able to facilitate efficient, reliable production programs around the globe in any environmental conditions. This means more than just industrial enclosure cooling units are needed. Enclosure heating solutions are also essential for manufacturers, and our new white paper helps you understand the important considerations for choosing an enclosure heating unit.

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How Rittal Helps Cargill Guarantee Process Reliability: Learn how Rittal’s climate control solutions help Cargill ensure the most optimal environment for cocoa bean and cocoa product processing for use around the world.

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The Need for Simplified Industrial Climate Control System Integration

Today’s manufacturers need sophisticated cooling technology without complication. This is where industrial cooling units and systems that are easily installed, integrated, scaled, and maintained help promote production programs built on efficiency, productivity, and sustainable manufacturing practices.

This is especially true for machine builders, panel builders, and systems integrators who prize speed, flexibility, and agility in deploying an industrial cooling unit, though the need for rapid, simple integration stretches of course across all industries.

With the IIoT interface for our Blue e+ line of cooling units, plant engineers have the power of remote and mobile monitoring, data transfer and sharing, and real-time insights into unit performance to avoid breakdowns and/or elevated maintenance costs.

In addition, variable mounting capabilities, easily interchangeable filters and fans, and user-friendly operation makes Rittal’s cooling units easy to operate, simple to maintain, and a valuable component in extending the service life of your electronics.

Selecting  IT Climate Control for any of your IT Deployments

The need for smart, integrated IT climate control solutions to improve energy efficiency and reduce costs is greater than ever before. Increased regulatory standards for carbon footprint reduction and use of renewable energy sources have also served to enhance the mission critical importance of IT climate control systems.

Climate Control at The Edge
System failures can lead to consequences for any business, including loss of productivity and revenue, missed opportunities, and eroded reputation. The losses can increase dramatically without proper planning. To avoid downtime, organizations plan for redundancies that help ensure the system is always up and running in their cooling systems. Cooling is as critical at The Edge as power, keeping equipment from overheating and minimizing the likelihood of failure.

Moving beyond the single cabinet, the Standalone Edge installation can manage massive amounts of data at an extremely local level. This configuration will be in one or two individual enclosures, supporting the same IT appliances found in larger deployments (Servers, Switches, Termination, etc.) but with very limited quantities.  The typical Edge installation may support just a few of each device – 1 or 2 rackmount servers, same for storage, a small network switch (or two), firewall and any related ancillary components required for the specific Edge application. With thermal loads of less than 5kW per footprint, the Blue e+ air conditioner range of capacities are perfectly suited to meet the heat removal requirements while providing the higher level of environmental protection demanded for Edge installations in non-traditional locations.

Within every industry, organizations have more data to generate, control, share, and save, which means more people need Edge computing’s benefits. In this whitepaper you’ll learn critical aspects and key components of Edge deployments.

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Climate Control in the Data Center
At the other end of the IT network is the Data Center.  This is the traditional IT space – a dedicated room (white space) with all the required infrastructure to support Big Data at scale.  Just as at The Edge – Climate Control is critical to maintaining the proper room environment to help ensure peak performance of all IT devices – 1002 to 1000s of servers, same for storage appliances, high capacity network switches and all the cable required to connect to the world.

As newer and more powerful devices are deployed, heat loads can and will exceed the capacities of installed facility systems – the CRAC/CRAH products.  Compounding this situation – not enough room in the space to install more of these units.  The solution – high density cooling systems using chill water or refrigerant to remove the excess heat.  Liquid Cooling Package (LCP) closed coupled in row systems provide the additional capacity to support these increasing IT loads.  LCP Systems also provide scalable solutions to expand as IT loads grow.  These systems can also have a positive impact on the bottom line – with improved energy efficiencies, high density LCPs can reduce CAPEX and OPEX costs and contribute to a lower overall Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) and faster Return on Investment (ROI).

Rack densities are increasing, and so are demands for highly efficient heat removal. In this white paper you’ll learn about in-row, in-rack, immersion and direct-to-chip cooling and their advantages, plus useful facts about liquid cooling that will help you identify the right method for your data center cooling needs.

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Discover why more and more data centers are seeing liquid as the future of cooling. In this white paper you’ll learn how this technology is capable of supporting increasing densities and energy costs.

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How to Enhance Your Industrial & IT Climate Control Systems

Blue e or Blue e+: Which is right for me?

In order to understand which line of industrial cooling units makes sense for you, you first have to understand what you need to support your production architecture and then you can determine which cooling system supports those needs.

How to Set Up Filter Monitoring on Your Blue e Air Conditioner

Cooling units help ensure that the equipment housed inside your enclosures maintains its stability and is protected from the dangers of overheating. Like any mechanical system, they will require periodic maintenance to keep running smoothly.

How Energy-Efficient Climate Control Helps Companies Reduce Their Carbon Footprint

Forward-thinking U.S. manufacturers are investing in energy-efficient systems to reduce their carbon footprint and operate at optimal levels. A major component of this move toward peak energy efficiency centers on climate solutions.

Climate Control at The Edge

Edge computing is becoming more and more common because of its many benefits to users, but how do you remove heat from these deployments? Determine the best cooling for Edge in this blog.

Liquid Cooling Solutions for High Demand Data Centers

As the demand for data and bandwidth continue to increase, so does the demand for more efficient cooling. Liquid cooling may provide the best option due its efficiency and flexibility.

IT for Industrial Environments: What Manufacturers Need to Know to Create Efficient IT Systems

A manufacturer’s priorities extend beyond being only a parts producer. They also need to optimize their IT equipment to help ensure uptime. Companies in every industry need ways to capture, organize, and use this information to be as flexible as possible.