Stainless Steel and the Future of Liquid Cooling in Data Centersby Jon Cellini and Mark Kowalski

As data demand grows at an unprecedented pace, one challenge looms large for data center operators: how to manage rising levels of heat. The traditional solution, air cooling, has reached a point where gains are minimal and energy use is unsustainable. Fans and chillers consume massive amounts of power while struggling to keep modern processors within safe operating limits. This is driving the industry toward a fundamental transformation in cooling strategy.

That transformation is liquid cooling. By transferring heat more effectively than air, liquid cooling is redefining how operators approach thermal management, making it possible to sustain higher computing densities with greater efficiency. Yet, the success of these systems doesn’t rest on engineering design alone. Their reliability hinges on the materials chosen to handle constant exposure to fluids and continuous operation. Among available options, stainless steel emerges as the material of choice, delivering the durability, corrosion resistance, and stability required to keep data centers running smoothly.

When Air Cooling Isn’t Enough: The Need for More Efficient Cooling Solutions

The digital backbone of today’s world is under extreme pressure. Cloud computing, hyperscale storage, artificial intelligence (AI), and high-performance computing (HPC) all demand more from servers. With every new generation of CPUs and GPUs pushing greater power, heat loads per rack are climbing dramatically.

Air cooling, which has served the industry for decades, simply isn’t capable of handling these loads efficiently. Moving air requires high energy input, and even then, thermal transfer is limited. This forces operators to allocate more space to cooling equipment while still risking component throttling, failures, and shortened hardware lifespans. The ripple effect is significant: downtime, replacement costs, and operational inefficiency can threaten business performance.

For this reason, cooling has become more than a facilities issue; it’s a strategic differentiator. Modern operators are embracing liquid cooling because it tackles heat at the source, supporting higher performance without excessive energy consumption or space requirements.

This approach is especially valuable for AI clusters, research labs, and enterprise HPC, where conventional cooling can’t scale. Benefits of liquid cooling include:

• Dramatically higher rack densities without overheating
• Lower power consumption and reduced utility bills
• Smaller physical footprint within the data hall
• Lower noise levels, as fans play a minimal role
• Stable peak performance, avoiding CPU/GPU throttling

By delivering efficiency and reliability at scale, liquid cooling is quickly becoming a core strategy for next-generation data centers.

How Stainless Steel Enables Liquid Cooling in Data Centers

The benefits of liquid cooling can only be achieved when the supporting infrastructure is built from materials that can withstand demanding operating conditions. Coolants pose several challenges, including chemical reactivity, corrosion risk, and continuous mechanical stress. Pumps, valves, and connectors often operate 24/7 and under elevated pressures, leaving little room for material weakness.

When the wrong materials are used, the consequences can be severe: leaks, fouling, and contamination that threaten both uptime and equipment safety. While copper is valued for its excellent thermal conductivity, it can degrade quickly in liquid environments, leading to fouling and reduced system performance. The problem compounds when different metals are combined in a single cooling loop. Dissimilar metals immersed in a conductive fluid, such as water or coolant, can trigger galvanic corrosion, an electrochemical process where the more reactive metal corrodes first.

Systems that combine copper and stainless steel often experience accelerated wear as copper deteriorates, resulting in maintenance challenges and shortened component life. To prevent these issues and ensure long-term reliability, many data center equipment manufacturers now specify all-stainless-steel assemblies. Stainless steel offers the optimal balance of strength, corrosion resistance, and compatibility needed to keep liquid cooling systems operating safely and efficiently over time.

Stainless Steel in Practice: Where It’s Used Within a Data Center

Because of these strengths, stainless steel components are widely integrated into liquid cooling systems across both immersion and direct-to-chip (DTC) applications. Examples include:

• Coolant Distribution Units (CDUs): Manage circulation, filtration, and temperature control.
• Rack and row manifolds: Distribute coolant precisely where it’s needed in high-density systems.
• Tubing and piping: Maintain purity and prevent chemical degradation.
• Fittings and couplings: Create leak-proof, pressure-resistant seals.
• Control valves: Regulate fluid flow while enduring mechanical and chemical stress.
• Filters and strainers: Protect downstream components by removing particulates.

These elements form the backbone of reliable liquid cooling, and stainless steel ensures they hold up under demanding conditions.

Considerations for Implementing Liquid Cooling Systems

Data centers transitioning to liquid cooling or building new facilities with liquid cooling must weigh several factors, from the type of cooling system to the materials used in its components. Both choices play a critical role in cost and efficiency.

Choosing the Right Cooling Approach

Not every facility implements liquid cooling the same way. Data centers must carefully evaluate how to incorporate it based on budget, performance goals, and long-term scalability. While the objective is always to keep servers operating safely and efficiently, the path to get there often comes down to two primary strategies: immersion cooling and direct-to-chip (DTC) cooling.

• Immersion Cooling: Entire servers are submerged in non-conductive (dielectric) fluid. This approach delivers some of the highest gains in energy efficiency and noise reduction. However, immersion systems typically come with a higher upfront investment and greater installation complexity.
  
  • Single-phase systems: Coolant is pumped through an external heat exchanger where it sheds heat before circulating back into the tank. This design is more straightforward but still requires precise fluid management.
  • Two-phase systems: Coolant boils as it absorbs heat from the servers, and the resulting vapor condenses on coils, transferring heat with exceptional efficiency. While this offers significant performance advantages, it also introduces more design challenges and higher system costs.
• Direct-to-Chip Cooling (DTC): DTC focuses cooling directly at the source of heat generation: CPUs, GPUs, and other high-power components. Coolant flows through cold plates mounted directly on these chips, carrying away heat before it can spread. While generally less efficient than immersion cooling, DTC offers a more accessible entry point because it can often be integrated into existing rack designs with less disruption.
  • Single-phase DTC: Uses a coolant distribution unit (CDU) and a heat exchanger to circulate fluid. It’s simpler than two-phase methods but requires careful leak-prevention measures since fluid is in close contact with critical electronics.
  • Two-phase DTC: Employs phase-change coolants that vaporize at the chip surface, enabling the system to handle much higher heat loads. This comes with greater design complexity and cost, but it is often the choice for facilities running next-generation, high-density processors.

Across both immersion and DTC cooling, stainless steel is a critical enabler. It resists corrosion, maintains structural integrity under continuous exposure to fluids, and supports leak-free system operation.

Stainless Steel Grades for Optimal Performance

Not all stainless steels perform equally in liquid cooling environments. The demands of continuous operation, exposure to specialized coolants, and the need for precision-manufactured components mean material selection can directly influence reliability and cost. Within data center cooling systems, two grades are most specified:

• 303 Stainless Steel: Known for its excellent machinability, 303 is often the preferred choice when producing high volumes of precision parts. Its ease of machining reduces manufacturing costs and supports rapid scalability, an important factor as data centers expand and standardize their cooling infrastructure.
• 316 Stainless Steel: When systems face more aggressive coolants or corrosive environments, 316 is the material of choice. It offers superior resistance to pitting, crevice corrosion, and chemical attack compared to 303. This makes it indispensable in applications where long-term durability and system integrity are critical.

Beyond grade selection, consistency in alloy composition plays a vital role. Variations in chemistry can affect everything from machining performance to corrosion resistance. Engineered products such as MAXX® Stainless Steel, available in the 300 series, provide a solution by delivering controlled chemistry, predictable machinability, and enhanced surface quality. For data center operators and OEMs, this consistency translates into fewer production variances, higher component reliability, and the assurance that cooling systems will perform as expected at scale.

Stainless Steel for Next-Generation Data Center Cooling

Liquid cooling is reshaping how the world’s data centers approach thermal management, enabling higher performance while reducing energy waste. But no matter the design – immersion or direct-to-chip – system longevity comes down to materials. Stainless steel provides unmatched reliability, ensuring components withstand continuous chemical, mechanical, and thermal stress.

At thyssenkrupp Materials NA Canada, we supply stainless steel that meets the demands of advanced cooling applications. Beyond alloy selection, our value-added services bring material closer to finished form, streamlining manufacturing and ensuring predictable results.

As computing workloads intensify and data centers move into an era of extreme densities, stainless steel will remain a cornerstone of liquid cooling infrastructure, delivering not just performance, but long-term resilience and sustainability.

Contact our team to learn how our stainless steel solutions can support your next-generation cooling systems.