Liberty Lake, WA – May 18, 2009 – SprayCool, a recognized leader in the development of advanced thermal management solutions for the military, announced today that it launched a 3U form factor of its scalable MPE line of direct-spray rugged enclosures. Targeted for use in ground vehicles, unmanned aerial systems (UAS) and rotor wing aircraft sensitive to size, weight, power and cost, the MPE-3U offers the lowest overall system cost compared to conduction or other liquid cooled alternatives, and enables the highest electronics flexibility, density and reliability in a 3U enclosure. The MPE-3U weighs in at only 18 lbs, but is rugged enough to provide environmental isolation to both commercial grade and rugged 3U cards.
Building on the legacy of flexibility inherent in all SprayCool enclosures, the MPE-3U allows customers to deploy commercial grade or legacy electronics (rugged electronics not required) in the same enclosure. The MPE-3U is evidence of a new trend by SprayCool to evolve their enclosure family by applying their technology to smaller and lighter footprints, while maintaining product flexibility and reliability at more competitive costs. In the case of electronics cards designed for air or conduction cooling, such as those offered by GE Fanuc, Curtiss-Wright, and Mercury, the MPE series, and MPE-3U in particular offers unparalleled flexibility in accepting those cards with minimal or no modifications. This translates directly into lower costs and faster development cycles for integrators and their military customers.
“Like all our enclosures, SprayCool’s MPE-3U is environmentally isolated to provide electronics survivability in harsh conditions,” said Matt Gerber, SprayCool president and chief executive officer. “And, its compact size and versatile mounting compatibility means customers can package significantly more 3U electronics into a smaller, lighter, more power efficient enclosure, and do it much more quickly,” he added.
MPE-3U Spec Highlights
The MPE-3U enclosure can scale above 7 slots and is designed to meet industry standard designs for 3U VPX, cPCI/cPCIe and VME-64X and proprietary electronics boards, offering significantly more cooling capability per slot (up to 100 Watts) than enclosures using lower capacity cooling technologies such as air or conduction cooling. The MPE-3U chassis is compatible with ½ ATR mounting standards and can accommodate a variety of customer specified I/O and backplane options.
The operating environment can range from temperatures of -55o C to +71o C, and altitudes of up to 55,000 ft. (75,000 optional), even in unpressurized compartments. The MPE-3U is a smaller variant of SprayCool’s proven design MPE-6U enclosure, and supports the same rugged environments for vibration, shock, EMI, sand, dust, salt fog, salt water immersion, altitude, and temperature.
MPE-3U System Integration and Applications
The SprayCool MPE-3U is ideally suited for the challenges facing today’s integrators and system designers that need to package more processing power into an existing or smaller space. With the broad variety of cards accepted by the MPE, system integrators no longer need to wait to deploy the latest in electronic solutions. Like the MPE-6U enclosure, target applications for the MPE-3U include sensor processing, electronic warfare, mission computing, and command and control for unmanned aircraft, helicopters, and ground based vehicles.
SprayCool Technology
SprayCool patented 2-phase liquid cooling technology(see video) uses a fine mist of non-corrosive, non-conductive liquid (FluorinertTM), sprayed in a thin layer, which evaporates and cools electronics. The process continuously cycles within a sealed, closed loop system. In doing so, SprayCool products isolate the electronics from dirty, corrosive environments found in military and industrial applications resulting in cooler, higher performance, and more durable electronic devices. The technology provides an efficiently controlled and isolated environment for a broad mix of electronics in a package that is significantly smaller, lighter, and more power and cost efficient, and faster to deploy by the integrator.
About SprayCool
SprayCool is a global leader in the development of current and next-generation electronics thermal management and environmental isolation enclosures and systems products for military and aerospace, and industrial applications, using its patented two-phase liquid cooling technology. SprayCool works with today’s leading integrators to meet the military’s most demanding requirements, and is gaining wide acceptance on a number of key reconnaissance, command & control, and EW programs. Platforms using SprayCool include manned and unmanned fixed-wing aircraft (U-2, Global Hawk, Predator, Warrior) and rotorcraft (Black Hawk) as well as amphibious (EFV) and missile defense systems (MEADS) among others. Founded in 1988, SprayCool is based in Liberty Lake, WA and markets its products through a global network of partners and integrators. For more information, please visit www.spraycool.com
