The accelerated growth of the global edge data center market has led to soaring demand for key mission critical infrastructure to support facilities across the United States. To keep up with the increasing need, 1623 Farnam committed $40 million in 2020 to expand and upgrade its edge data center in Omaha, Nebraska.

There are inherent challenges that come with completing construction work in an active data center — and even more so when the facility is a nine-story high-rise housing mission critical services. Maintaining white space, spatial constraints, and system reliability were major considerations for contractor Hayes Mechanical who was tasked with expanding the building’s cooling system. Ultimately, Victaulic’s grooved pipe-joining technology addressed those concerns while allowing Hayes Mechanical and structural engineer HED Dallas to fast-track installation and adopt a phased implementation approach.

Victaulic grooved solutions were used to install both chilled water and air cooling systems on the 1623 Farnam project. Hayes Mechanical eliminated the presence of hot works and fumes produced during a traditional welding job and minimized the risk of sparks and debris in an operational building by adopting the mechanical pipe-joining solutions. Since installing couplings is significantly less time-consuming than welding, workers were able to cut pipes into shorter pieces to transport sticks on elevators without the worry of added welding time delaying the schedule.

Use of Series 761 Vic-300™ MasterSeal™ Butterfly Valves with an off-set disc design optimized system reliability for 1623 Farnam. The solution eliminated the concern of leakage as the valve design does not impart compression on the elastomeric seal in the open position and therefore creates a 360-degree compression seal when shut-off is necessary. Victaulic differential pressure-balancing valves provided a constant flow of chilled water to each computer room air handler (CRAH) while reducing pressure variations. This solution has multiple benefits: contractors could bring individual floors online without impacting pressure balancing in the short term, and piping can be easily disassembled and reconfigured as equipment and computing densities increase in the long term.

Victaulic’s grooved pipe-joining solutions eliminated risks in an active mission critical jobsite while increasing confidence in the multitenant data center’s system dependability.

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Responding to Edge Interconnection Demand, 7×24 Change International