02 EN: Reliability for Data Centers - Miba Sputtered Hydrodynamic Bearings for High-Power Motors

00:00:00: This episode was translated from a German interview with AI.

00:00:29: because we are also the only ones in the world who can coat diameters from three hundred sixty to three hundred seventy millimeters with very high precision, uniform coating thickness and excellent coating properties.

00:00:40: Welcome to a new episode of Mieber Inside – Miebers Tech podcast for all Mieba colleagues and everyone that is passionate about technologies on a cleaner planet!

00:00:50: Here's what you don't normally see… The technology inside engines trains ships wind turbines hydroelectric power stations power grids much more.

00:00:59: Our experts from MiBAR explain how our components help make customers' products and applications safer, more reliable & energy efficient.

00:01:07: And they'll also show why we're among the world leaders in many of these specialist fields.

00:01:12: Today were discussing how specially coated MiBar hydrodynamic bearings helped to supply data centres with power In a particularly reliable and fail-safe manner.

00:01:22: A little spoiler, the hydrodynamic bearings are installed in high-load motors so called HiPoMotors short for High Power and in emergency power generators.

00:01:32: My guests today from the MiBAR Engine Bearings Group namely Hans Nagel who is Technical Manager of the development of sputtering processes at the Technology Competence Centre of MiBar Engine Bearlings And Michael Putz who is Key Account Manager at MiBah Engine Bearnings The Hydrodynamics Bearings Division For Engines and both are based at Mieba Glidelager Austria in La Cursion.

00:01:55: A very warm welcome, it's great to have you here!

00:01:58: Hello!

00:01:58: To start with I'd like to ask you introduce yourselves briefly so we can get know better how long has been with Miebar?

00:02:05: And what brought you here Michael?

00:02:06: I've been with me for over twenty years.

00:02:08: almost thirty worked in various departments started the special machine construction area at MIEBA Automation Systems MAS.

00:02:17: A few years later, I moved to an application engineering role spent two exciting years at our Meeba-McConnellsville site in the US.

00:02:24: Since ten i have been working as a key account manager in the front office of the Bering's division here and responsible for major customers in high performance engine sector.

00:02:35: And you, Hans?

00:02:35: I started my nineteenth year at MIBA.

00:02:37: At the beginning of this month... ...I come from a background in experimental physics but decided it was all too abstract for me and then found a job advertisement form MIBA.

00:02:46: on The Notice Board next to the Dean's office They were looking someone with expertise in vacuum technology.. ..and that was my ticket to MIBA.

00:02:54: Since than i've been working on coating technology.

00:02:57: So You went straight from uni to MIBAR.

00:02:59: Exactly

00:03:00: What is actually best thing about your work personally?

00:03:02: It

00:03:02: Is the independent Work Working together with our customers bringing the customer's perspective and their problems into the company.

00:03:09: And then finding a solution to gather what the team it is really exciting job

00:03:14: hands about you,

00:03:23: Production and quality requires, what's also a lot of fun is working in the team where everyone puts their heart into it.

00:03:31: Where we work in multidisciplinary way as often case development department I like to call critical mass that has reached.

00:03:39: when enough people with right skills come together In the end, the result is simply greater than some of its parts.

00:03:46: Today we're talking about hydrodynamic bearings which undergo a very special treatment A special coating applied using a process known as sputtering.

00:03:55: That sounds very technical.

00:03:57: How can you explain it in simple terms?

00:03:59: What sort of technology?

00:04:03: In the sputtering process, a piece of metal is vaporized using an electrically charged gas known as plasma.

00:04:10: It's actually broken down into its constituent parts and this vapour is then deposited atom by atom onto the component to be coated.

00:04:20: This process allows us significantly influence material properties.

00:04:24: The base material is then transformed into a very fine, fine-grain material that's significantly harder and more wear resistant than the original material.

00:04:32: And we use this to make our components stronger, more robust & longer lasting...

00:04:36: Which is especially important for engines!

00:04:39: That sounds like an extremely sophisticated technology?

00:04:42: Can anyone do it or is MIBA the only one capable of doing so in this

00:04:45: way?!

00:04:46: The technology itself is widespread but the way MIBA Glite Lager applies its is very specialised.

00:04:52: In other words, our process is tailor-made for coating hydrodynamic bearings.

00:04:57: We are the only company in the world that can coat the inner diameter —that's the inner bore surfaces—based on cylinder geometry starting from a tube as raw material and coaxial geometry.

00:05:09: MIBA's unique selling point essentially lies in the diameter range.

00:05:13: On one hand we're able to coat bore diameters upto sixty millimeters And at the upper end, we are also the only company in the world that can coat diameters from three hundred sixty to three hundred seventy millimeters with very high precision uniform coating thickness and excellent coating properties.

00:05:31: So that is precisely the diameter range relevant to the application will be discussing more detail later today.

00:05:37: so World Class High Tech you're The Only Ones Who Can Coat The Inside Of Hydrodynamic Bearings Like That.

00:05:43: How Did You Develop It?

00:05:44: How long does it actually take to develop such a specialized technology?

00:05:48: Technology development at MIBA began long before my time.

00:05:51: Development started in nineteen eighty-three, but if you go back even further this sputtering process was first used industrially in the nineteen fifties and nineteen sixties for optical coatings and tool coatings And then when engineers found out that the coating produced using these processes were superior from conventional methods.

00:06:11: Up until that point, electroplating was state-of the art in hydrodynamic bearing technology.

00:06:17: However, the potential was recognized—the technology was brought to MiBAR and through perseverance it was successfully developed at a point where it became commercially viable process.

00:06:29: The first buttercoated bearing which went into series production in nineteen eighty eight... ...was then one of the enablers for engine manufacturers Higher power densities in smaller installation spaces and to be able to build higher charged engines.

00:06:45: In the first place, so

00:06:46: a real game changer.

00:06:47: actually

00:06:48: exactly that was a game changer back then And since then we've kept pushing further developing the process The products and the materials and then I think it was around two thousand eight We launched the next game changer onto the market and that was the sputter syntec bearing where a polymer layer was applied on top of the sputtered layer.

00:07:07: The sputter bearing has major advantages when it comes to fatigue strength and wear resistance, however... ...when developing materials for hydrodynamic bearings you always have to make compromises.

00:07:16: that means if a material is very strong and highly wear resistant You sacrifice flexibility robustness and adaptability To make this strong wear-resistant spotter bearing more robust we opted for sandwich approach and apply an additional layer.

00:07:31: by adding this extra material We increase the adaptability of hydrodynamic bearing, and at same time achieve very good performance in mixed friction range.

00:07:40: For example during start-stop operation or if we experience a brief shortage oil.

00:07:46: So these examples are exactly where engines are subjected to most extreme stresses like rapid startup, rapid shutdown or lack of oil.

00:07:55: That's exactly where this Sintek running in layer helps ensure the hydrodynamic bearings continue to do what they're supposed to.

00:08:03: Exactly!

00:08:03: Let us now turn todays topic, Hydrodynamics Bearings In High Power Motors And Emergency Power Generators In Data Centres.

00:08:11: The world needs more and energy not just because of AI but also big data edge computing Internet Of Things and so on and data center operators want or rather need To be independent of external power grid.

00:08:25: How exactly are these high-power motors, the hypomotors used in data centers deployed?

00:08:30: The high speed engines cover an electric power output range from roughly five hundred kilowatts up to about ten megawatts just to put that into perspective.

00:08:39: And they are used in all kinds of applications for example in earth moving equipment mining vehicles and in the oil and gas sector where they drive compresses And in power generation, these engines can run continuously as a base load.

00:08:55: They can cover peak demands and they're also used for emergency power.

00:09:00: that's especially important for data centers because they simply can't afford to lose power not even for a moment.

00:09:06: it's crucial that the systems are completely self-sufficient so if there is ever an issue with the main power supply The backup engines immediately step in deliver energy needed.

00:09:16: Data centers can then be completely independent of the main grid if they use these high power engines and, of course emergency generators as a backup.

00:09:24: Exactly!

00:09:24: And data centers are built with triple redundancy.

00:09:28: that means there are three identical sites... ...and each one has to be at least two hundred kilometers apart.

00:09:33: They're completely self-sufficient as well –they have to generate their own power supply.

00:09:38: And interestingly… The data isn't stored on hard drives but directly in RAM.

00:09:42: That means the power must not go out any time.

00:09:45: So These facilities need enough emergency generators to back everything up.

00:09:49: And we're not talking about just one or two, We are talking forty, fifty even sixty backup Gensets dedicated solely for that purpose

00:09:57: Which produce upto ten megawatts?

00:09:59: In this case they have around three to five megawatths each Genset and of course can go up to ten megawatt's.

00:10:05: in addition the backup Generators data centers also needs continuously operating Gensets that supply power around the clock, delivering up to about ten megawatts per unit.

00:10:16: And in some cases they'll even rely on turbines which can provide twenty-thirty or even more megawats!

00:10:21: So that means there are up to one hundred highpower engines in a data center and forty to sixty emergency generators?

00:10:29: That's right – In a large datacenter we're talking hundreds of engines installed onsite.

00:10:33: How big are these engines?

00:10:34: in terms of dimensions A

00:10:36: three to five megawatt engine is approximately ten to fifteen meters long.

00:10:40: I'd say a complete gen set has the size of large shipping container.

00:10:44: Wow, so basically huge array of engines located at data center?

00:10:48: Exactly!

00:10:49: A five megawatt Gen Set just barely fits on a large semi-truck.

00:10:52: So that means there are actually quite few hydrodynamic bearings in motor park like this And logically, they all have to be working.

00:11:01: How is that maintained?

00:11:03: Because as you say the power has to keep flowing.

00:11:06: That means the hydrodynamic bearings have to running all of time too!

00:11:10: how can we ensure and what advantage do Meeba Hydrodynamics Bearings offer in this case?

00:11:15: Basically

00:11:16: with so many engines on site not all are used at same times which mean there's always a certain percentage of engines taken offline for servicing and repairs.

00:11:26: They're also regularly tested to make sure they'll perform reliably when their needed, And the big advantage of our customers is that significantly longer service life in these engines especially running under continuous load twenty four seven In this case Service Life can reach forty thousand hours and beyond.

00:11:44: We are talking about more than six thousand starts and stops.

00:11:48: That's extremely impressive.

00:11:50: clearly puts us steps ahead of other available technologies in the market.

00:11:58: In

00:12:02: that case,

00:12:14: what sort of forces are at work there?

00:12:17: It's roughly comparable to Ten Formula One cars can generate at full throttle.

00:12:22: Impressive!

00:12:23: And, Can this technology only be applied to hydrodynamic bearings or other components as well?

00:12:29: Its application is definitely a niche application.

00:12:34: The process originates from optics and tool coding which are still very large markets today.

00:12:40: tool coatings produced using sputtering make them more wear resistant, anti-reflective or reflective coating on glass and mirrors are also manufactured in this way.

00:12:50: And of course another very large market is the whole field of semiconductor technology.

00:12:56: Sputter coating can be found every mobile phone and electronic device so it's an incredibly versatile technology.

00:13:03: But are sputter coated hydrodynamic bearings only available from Meeba?

00:13:08: The competition is trying to make them, but they have significant disadvantages.

00:13:12: They have to buy the equipment Mieba can design build specify and operate the coating systems itself.

00:13:18: we're also able to manufacture the raw materials We use for the coatings ourselves which our competitors Can't do And the entire process development in process technology too.

00:13:28: All are competitors rely on external sources and on buying a know-how whereas me bar Is virtually self sufficient In this area?

00:13:35: How does it work when you sell a plane bearing?

00:13:38: Manufacturers of engines or emergency generators probably don't just order an off-the-shelf product from you and have it delivered, It likely works differently.

00:13:47: Exactly!

00:13:48: We're partners right form the engine development phase.

00:13:51: These engines are designed for very specific applications And we're involved in the beginning Starting with a product design Including dimensions & material composition.

00:14:02: We carry out calculations Design bearings Run installation trials and support our customers throughout the entire development process.

00:14:10: And once that's completed, we verify whether the required service life has been achieved.

00:14:15: supporting with our analysis and investigations is a process that takes several years.

00:14:21: so they come to you and say We'd like to have your component in there.

00:14:24: this how we envisage the engine?

00:14:37: with our components.

00:14:38: so it's actually a very close customer relationship.

00:14:41: as we've already mentioned the hydro dynamic bearings must demonstrate extremely high reliability.

00:14:46: how can you ensure that before they even reach the customer?

00:14:49: yes, it is.

00:14:50: You're referring to the entire manufacturing process.

00:14:54: it's absolutely essential for our products that all manufacturing processes are verified and reliable so we can maintain guarantee the high level of quality thats required.

00:15:04: In early stages, during technology & product development naturally use test benches to make sure on one hand performance load bearing capacity or fatigue strength is right but they don't show any major variations then move into field application with a high degree of certainty and minimal risk.

00:15:24: For example, we copy the real engine operating conditions on our test benches and this allows us to develop a materials exactly to the application demands.

00:15:32: Are there any other me by applications where sputtering technology has proven its worth or do you already have further plans regarding the direction in which she want the coding technology to develop.

00:15:44: Sputter coatings in these products are Of course, used in other engine applications as well.

00:15:49: We actually started introducing these coatings and the heavy-duty truck engines And from there we expanded into high speed engines which is currently the biggest market... ...and then even larger engine platforms.

00:15:59: Marine engines for example also use sputter solutions as well

00:16:03: Not to forget our sputter coating for gearbox applications In aircraft engines where we've been able to contribute an enabling technology that has significantly reduced noise emissions & fuel consumption.

00:16:15: And do these hydrodynamic bearings actually care how they're powered?

00:16:18: I mean whether it's gas, kerosene diesel or other fuels.

00:16:22: That is a field of research that few colleagues are currently working on.

00:16:26: in fact does matter to the hydro-dynamic bearing if we want move away from fossil fuel and towards ammonia hydrogen and biodiesel powertrains.

00:16:34: all these fuels produce different combustion products which interact differently with our materials can lead to varying degrees corrosion.

00:16:42: when hydrogen is burned for example A great deal of water is produced and water in the engine can, of course become problematic.

00:16:49: And to understand these interactions and tailor our products so that we remain a technology leader with clean fuels for the future... We naturally have to look into what this interaction looks like now.

00:17:01: MIBA is a company with global locations When it comes to engine bearings.

00:17:07: there are sites in USA China and Austria.

00:17:12: How does the collaboration work there?

00:17:13: Can they all handle this sputtering technology, and how do you work with them.

00:17:17: All our manufacturing sites are equipped with sputtering technologies and sputtering machines.

00:17:22: These machines actually built here in Austria by MAS And from their the technology is applied locally at each site.

00:17:29: So by Mieber Automation Systems which also a Mieba subsidiary.

00:17:34: If anyone's listening to us now and really interested.

00:17:39: what advice would give that person?

00:17:41: How can they find out more about you, the technology or your team?

00:17:45: Well of course it's never a mistake to study physics.

00:17:48: I can only advise everyone to do that.

00:17:50: but joking aside if you want to find out a bit about our technology and development at MIBA through official channels there are regular events like The Long Night Of Research And The Long night of Industrial Culture where we always try to actively present current research areas and priorities.

00:18:08: You can also apply for internships for bachelor's theses and for master thesis.

00:18:14: There are always exciting little projects and activities where we need support, And I'm always happy to hear from motivated applicants.

00:18:22: Do you have to be a university graduate or be finishing your degree?

00:18:25: To work at me bar Or to work in your field with your technology?

00:18:29: no You don't have two.

00:18:31: there is also the apprenticeship for surface technicians Where we place a clear emphasis on the coating technologies used that me bar.

00:18:39: besides going to college You can also start an apprenticeship at Meeba and that offers you access to this coating technology in the Bering Division.

00:18:48: It really opens up many opportunities to get involved in these areas, and you certainly won't get bored!

00:18:53: Thank you both very much for this fascinating interview.

00:18:56: it's been lovely having you here.

00:18:57: Thanks for having us.

00:18:58: thank you.

00:18:59: Together we're creating technologies for a cleaner planet.

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