Airedale has launched a new cooling chiller for air-cooled data centers.

The Modine-owned company this week announced the TurboChill 3+MW chiller.

This is the latest expansion to the TurboChill range, providing free-cooling and air-cooled chiller heat rejection for data centers.

The company said the chiller features an expanded operating range for free cooling, reducing the need for mechanical cooling and lowering energy consumption.

"There is speculation that chillers may no longer be required as next‑generation chips are designed to operate at higher temperatures," said Art Laszlo, group VP of global data centers at Modine. "However, customers continue to demand proven cooling and reliability to protect their investments, especially when high-performance computing is installed on site. Thermal architectures with dry coolers as the only form of heat rejection are not practical in many regions where varying ambient and recirculation conditions will still require refrigerant-based cooling for reliable data center operations. Airedale by Modine's TurboChill platform delivers an ideal hybrid solution by maximizing free cooling where conditions allow, while deploying mechanical cooling to manage peak heat loads and the reliability customers expect."

Amid a shift to higher water temperatures for some GPU hardware, Modine said that data center operators need flexibility to serve real-world deployments.

“Ambient heat waves, parasitic system losses, and local air recirculation can overwhelm systems that rely solely on high-temperature liquid cooling,” the company said. “Mechanical cooling provides the essential, non-negotiable capacity to handle peak loads and protect against thermal shutdown.”

Modine added that many data center operators may only convert part of their data centers to higher-density racks capable of running with 45°C (113°F) inlet fluid temperatures. This means, the company said, other racks in the same data center need traditional facility water return temperatures to safely operate.

Modine acquired Airedale in 2005, with the company now one of the largest end-to-end cooling solutions providers in the data center industry. The company also offers technologies for liquid cooling.

The company released its 2MW TurboChill DCS compressor chiller in September.