London, The United Kingdom, March 6, 2026
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The Facility Distribution Unit (FDU) has been awarded the title of “Innovation Product of the Year” at Data Centre World London 2026.
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The Facility Distribution Unit (FDU) is a 5-megawatt liquid cooling system installed outside the white space, engineered to serve entire data halls. It replaces dozens of scattered CDUs, simplifies cooling infrastructure, and significantly reduces the risk of failure near mission-critical IT hardware.
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DCX Liquid Cooling Systems has been contracted to deliver over 70 FDUs for 3 AI Data Centers in France and the United States
We are incredibly excited and proud that our Facility Coolant Distribution Unit has been named Innovation Product of the Year at Data Centre World London! This recognition highlights our commitment to pushing the boundaries of Data Center technology.
A panel of experienced industry experts saw the potential in our hyperscale CDU system, designed to meet the extreme cooling demands of modern AI hardware. Their endorsement is a testament to the innovation and performance of our solution.
We are grateful to everyone involved in making this vision a reality. Thank you for helping us transform the future of Data Center cooling!
What is a Facility Distribution Unit?
Facility Distribution Unit (FDU) is a centralized coolant distribution unit used in direct liquid cooling systems for large-scale server clusters, including GPU-intensive environments. Unlike traditional Coolant Distribution Units (CDUs), which are typically installed locally in IT rows, the FDU is deployed outside the white space – either in a technical corridor or even outside. This relocation fundamentally changes both the cooling architecture and the physical design of data centers.
The new cooling topology based on FDU eliminates the legacy model of numerous distributed small cooling loops (each with its own CDU, pump, and heat exchanger) and replaces them with a single, high-capacity unit supporting the entire IT zone through centralized supply and return loops. This significantly reduces the number of critical components placed directly near the IT hardware.
With high-pump head capabilities (loop reach exceeding 50 m), FDUs allow flexible placement of high-density racks based on power availability, structural constraints, or cabling, rather than proximity to cooling units. The use of standardized loop topology ensures repeatability across deployments: whether the system supports 20 or 200 racks, the piping layout, controls, and integration logic remain consistent. This reduces engineering effort, commissioning time, and the likelihood of configuration errors.
From a logical architecture standpoint, the FDU becomes the central node of the thermal cooling system, bridging the chilled water source with the downstream distribution network that feeds manifolds and server-side cold plates. As a result, local CDUs become obsolete – their function is taken over by a centralized FDU offering greater capacity, longer reach, and full diagnostic control via the facility management layer.
