Christchurch designed and built cabinet protects Vodafone telecommunications equipment
Telecommunications Company Vodafone has partnered with Christchurch-headquartered Vynco Industries Ltd to design and manufacture an innovative heat rejection cabinet to hold their server units inside their mobile phone and cell towers – a move that will bring the manufacturing of this key technology component to New Zealand.
A leading distributor of electrical components, Vynco specialises in the design and manufacture of electrical accessories, lighting and air movement products for the electrical industry, and recently invested in state-of-the-art CNC-controlled metal fabrication equipment to enable the development of this capability in New Zealand.
Vynco Product Development Manager Ben Soppit says the new cabinet design will significantly reduce heat inside the cell towers and the associated power to keep these cool.
“Our research and development and engineering teams at Vynco worked closely with the Vodafone engineers and installers to fully understand the challenges of the installation process and the high specification performance requirements of the servers.
“By reviewing the existing imported cabinets used to house these servers along with understanding the prototyping and testing undertaken by the Vodafone engineers, we were able to develop a manufacturable cabinet design to dramatically improve the natural air cooling process and performance of the server units. This reduces energy requirements of a site by around 30%, therefore reducing carbon emissions and offering a more sustainable temperature control mechanism.
“Ongoing improvements are continuing to the cabinet design to further improve the installation process and allow for the mounting of battery systems to also take advantage of the improved cooling provided.”
Vynco has been closely connected with the telecommunications industry for decades and has also provided innovative solutions to organisations such as the New Zealand Defence Force, and KiwiRail, as well as technology solutions for the New Zealand film industry and dairy industries. The company also exports to Australia, Middle East and Pacific Islands.
Vynco Managing Director Simon Vale says key to the company’s ability to secure these projects is the company’s strong focus on research and development, and customisation.
“R&D is so important to our future. We are a family-owned business employing over 100 people nationwide and are the only true New Zealand based business left in this field.
“Our ability to innovate and our focus on continuous improvement are key to ensuring we are able to continue leading this way in a highly competitive national and international marketplace.”
Vodafone Wholesale & Infrastructure Director, Tony Baird, said the company was proud to work with great New Zealand businesses. “We want to support local innovators and Vynco is doing some incredible work to design and manufacture important components to maintain our telco infrastructure. It’s even better when we can achieve both productivity and environmental gains, which these new self-cooling cabinets offer.”
