JPH0820159B2 - Control system with cooling valve open / closed state detection function - Google Patents

Description

The present invention relates to a liquid cooling device such as an electronic computer.

In particular, the present invention relates to a control system having a function of detecting a valve open / closed state.

[Prior Art] Generally, an electronic device such as an electronic computer has a plurality of printed circuit boards mounted with a large number of integrated circuit elements mounted on a rack. The cooling of this type of electronic device is performed by forced air cooling by a fan attached to the rack.

In recent years, as the circuit elements are integrated on a large scale and the packaging density is increased, the heat generation density inside the rack is becoming higher. In these devices, a liquid cooling system is often adopted. For example, there is a method in which an electronic element is brought into close contact with a flat plate on which a liquid refrigerant has flowed to transfer heat to the refrigerant.

FIG. 3 shows, as a conventional example, a control system diagram of a cooling device that circulates and supplies a liquid refrigerant to an electronic device as a cooled object to remove heat from the cooled object.

In FIG. 3, reference numeral 10 is a cooling device, 20, 20, 20 are electronic devices, and 30 is a pipe serving as a refrigerant flow path between both devices.

The cooling device 10 includes a heat exchanger 11 that removes heat taken by the refrigerant from the object to be cooled 21 in the electronic device 20, a pump 12 that circulates the refrigerant, and a pipe that individually supplies the refrigerant to each electronic device 20.
Flowmeter 13 connected to 30 and piping 31 connecting them
It has and.

Further, it has a control unit 14 that monitors the signal from the flow meter 13 and controls the operation of the pump 12 and the heat exchanger 11.

15 is a control line between the control unit 14 and the pump 12, 16 is a control unit
A control line between 14 and the heat exchanger 11, and 17 is a signal line for transmitting a detection signal of the flowmeter 13 to the control unit 14.

On the other hand, the electronic device 20 includes an object to be cooled 21 that is in close contact with a flat plate through which a refrigerant flows, and a power supply control unit 22 of each electronic device.
And valves 23 and 24 for disconnecting the refrigerant pipe system, and a refrigerant pipe 32 in the apparatus.

Between the cooling device 10 and each electronic device 20, the control unit 14 of the cooling device 10 to each power supply control unit 22 of each electronic device 20.
There is a signal line 40 for transmitting a signal that can be turned on, and is designed to output a signal to turn off the power of the electronic device 20 when the cooling device 10 is abnormal.

[Problems to be Solved] In the above-described conventional cooling device control system, when the cooled object 21 of any electronic device 20 is replaced during operation, the power of the corresponding electronic device is turned off and the corresponding refrigerant system is operated. It was designed to close the valves 23 and 24 of the above, replace parts, and then open the valve to turn on the power of the electronic device again.However, if you forget to open the valve, open / close the valve. Since it is not detected, there is a problem that the power of the electronic device is turned on in the state where the refrigerant does not flow.

The present invention has been made in view of the above problems,
An object of the present invention is to provide a control system with a valve open / closed state detection function for a cooling device, in which the power of the electronic device is not turned on while the refrigerant is not flowing.

[Means for Solving the Problems] In order to achieve the above object, the present invention provides a device to be cooled,
In this cooling device, which is provided with a cooling device that circulates liquid refrigerant through a piping system, a valve having an open / closed state detection function is provided in the piping system, and the cooling device is provided when the valve is in a closed state. The cooling device is provided with a control unit for prohibiting power-on.

[Embodiment] An embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.

 FIG. 1 is a block diagram of an embodiment of the present invention.

In the figure, 50 is a cooling device, 60, 60, 60 are electronic devices,
Reference numeral 70 is a pipe serving as a refrigerant flow path between both devices.

The cooling device 50 circulates and supplies the refrigerant through the pipe 70 to the electronic devices 60, 60, 60 having the object 61 to be cooled.

The cooling device 50 includes a heat exchanger 51 that exhausts heat taken by the refrigerant from each cooled object 61 in each electronic device 60, a pump 52 that circulates the refrigerant, and a flow meter 53 that detects the flow rate of the refrigerant.
And a control line 55 between the control unit 54 and the control unit of the pump 52.
And a control line 56 between the heat exchanger 51 and the control unit 54, and a flow meter
A signal line 57 for transmitting the detection signal of 53 to the control unit 54, and a pipe 71 in the apparatus.

On the other hand, the electronic device 60 includes a cooled object 61 that is in close contact with the flat plate through which the refrigerant flows, a power supply control unit 62, valves 63 and 64 for cutting the refrigerant piping system, and a refrigerant piping 72 in the apparatus. ing.

The valves 63 and 64 each have an open / closed state detection function.

For example, as shown in FIG. 2, a proximity switch 65 (or a micro switch or the like) is attached to the hall valve, and the open / closed state is detected by detecting the position of the handle 66.

Then, between the cooling device 50 and each electronic device 60,
A signal line 81 that connects the control unit 54 of the cooling device 50 and the power supply control unit 62 of the electronic device 60, and the valve 6 to the control unit 54 of the cooling device 50.
A signal line 82 for transmitting 3,64 detection signals is provided.

Such a control system includes a control unit 54 of the cooling device 50.
However, the operation control of the heat exchanger 51 and the pump 52 is performed through the control line 55 and the control line 56, the flow rate of the refrigerant is monitored by the flow meter 53, and the open / closed states of the valves 63, 64 in the electronic device 60 are monitored. .

For example, when replacing the cooled object 61 of any electronic device, the valves 63 and 64 are closed to disconnect the cooling system in the electronic device and replace the parts. After that, when opening the valves 63 and 64 and turning on the power again, if the valves 63 and 64 are forgotten to be opened, the control unit 54 of the cooling device 50 detects the open / closed state of the valves 63 or 64, A signal (alarm signal) indicating that power cannot be turned on is transmitted to the power control unit of the corresponding electronic device through the signal line 81.

This prevents the power of the electronic device from being turned on in the state where the refrigerant does not flow when the valves 63 and 64 are erroneously operated.

[Effect of the Invention] As described above, according to the present invention, a valve in an electronic device having an object to be cooled is provided with a function of detecting an open / closed state and a function of notifying the cooling device. When replacing the parts of the cooling body, if you forget to open the valve when opening the valve and turning on the power again after replacing the parts, the control unit of the cooling device detects the open / closed state of the valve,
By transmitting a signal indicating that power cannot be turned on to the power control unit of the corresponding electronic device, it is possible to prevent the power of the electronic device from being turned on in a state where no refrigerant flows when the valve malfunctions.

Further, since it is not necessary to newly install a flow meter or the like for detecting the forgetting to open the valve, there is an effect that the refrigerant can be distributed in the electronic device without taking up a space.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a system configuration diagram of an embodiment of the present invention, FIG. 2 is a front view showing an example of a valve with an open / closed state detection function, and FIG.
The figure is a conventional system configuration diagram. 50: Cooling device 51: Heat exchanger 52: Pump 53: Flow meter 54: Control unit 60: Electronic device 61: Object to be cooled 62: Power control unit 63: Valve 64: Valve 70: Piping

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A system comprising a device to be cooled and a cooling device which circulates a liquid refrigerant to the device to be cooled through a piping system, wherein the piping system is provided with a valve having an open / closed state detecting function, and the valve is provided. A control system with a valve open / closed state detection function for a cooling device, wherein the cooling device is provided with a control unit that disables power-on of the device to be cooled when is closed.