From 10 to 12 June 2026, at the Bao'an venue of the Shenzhen International Convention and Exhibition Centre, one signal ran consistently through the three days of the sixth Shenzhen International Data Centre Liquid Cooling Industry Technology Exhibition: liquid cooling has moved from an option to a requirement. That shift was visible in the technical proposals at every stand and in the substance of every forum discussion.
At stand H08 in Hall 16, Xi'an AEH Industrial Metrology drew close attention from liquid cooling pipework manufacturers and working engineers with a measuring machine developed specifically for the sector. With three core advances — no reliance on compressed air, active compensation across a wide temperature range, and twin-arm measurement — AEH offered an answer from precision measurement to an industry moving from optional to essential.
Liquid cooling pipework: the last mile holding up AI cooling
By 2026, liquid cooling had risen from under 3% of Chinese servers in 2021 to around 28%, reaching 74% among AI training servers, with more than 40 newly built intelligent computing centres in China adopting it universally. Liquid cooling has become a requirement rather than a choice.
Yet while the industry concentrates on cold plate machining accuracy, CDU control strategies and UQD connector standards, precise inline measurement of liquid cooling pipework remains an invisible bottleneck on volume supply. These parts are mostly produced in workshop conditions, exposed to oil, cutting fluid and wide day-to-night temperature swings; the pipes are long and slender with symmetrical features on both sides. Conventional measuring equipment usually has to trade accuracy against speed, and sometimes cannot run stably at all without an air supply or in fluctuating conditions, leaving production lines to make do with delayed offline sampling.
The liquid cooling market is in a difficult transition from bespoke work to standardised production. For the industry to deliver at scale and control quality in volume, inline, high-throughput measurement of pipework, manifolds and cold plates will decide who competes successfully in the next phase of the supply chain.
A dedicated machine aimed at three hard problems in pipework measurement
Working from that insight, AEH showed the Cooling1632 dedicated measuring machine for liquid cooling for the first time at this exhibition. A nationally recognised specialised and innovative enterprise, AEH has worked in precision measurement for 28 years. What is different this time is the move from general-purpose equipment into dedicated machines for a specific industry.
The machine was designed around three hard problems in measuring liquid cooling pipework. It needs no compressed air and runs from a standard power supply, removing any dependence on a compressed air system. It adapts across a wide temperature range, with a built-in compensation module holding accuracy steady through workshop variation between 10 and 40 degrees Celsius. And it measures both sides at once: for pipework that is long, slender and symmetrical, twin cantilever arms work simultaneously and cut inspection time substantially.
The decision to build a dedicated machine rather than make do with general-purpose equipment struck a chord with engineers at the show. Many said plainly that this was exactly the machine they had been waiting for on the shop floor.
Structure, sensing and algorithms: closing the loop on both accuracy and speed
The machine also establishes clear technical advantages in structure, sensor fusion and in-house software. The twin cantilever design addresses the throughput bottleneck created by long, symmetrical pipework, with a compact structure, open access and easy loading and unloading. The table and base are made from high-grade Jinan green granite, and all three axes use high-accuracy linear guides and precision ball screws for smooth, dependable motion.
For sensor fusion, the machine carries both a touch-trigger probe and a 3D laser scanning probe, measuring pipe faces, bore diameters, threads, weld geometry and surface profiles within one system — the contact probe securing accuracy, the non-contact probe raising speed.
In software, the machine runs NET·DMIS, developed entirely in-house, which reads engineering files from mainstream 3D packages including UG and Catia, continuing the logic of genuine technical independence. The latest EMRP quality management platform brings machine-level data into a wider control framework, opening the way to quality traceability and closed-loop management at scale.
A strong response at the show, as independent technology becomes something you can buy
According to the organisers, this exhibition covered 20,000 square metres, brought together 476 leading Chinese and international companies from across the supply chain, and drew 31,065 visits. Enquiries at the AEH stand were steady throughout, with engineers from pipework manufacturers, liquid cooled server integrators and upstream suppliers all interested in how the machine would deploy in workshop conditions.
As a provider of complete precision measurement solutions, AEH's range now covers coordinate measuring machines, a fourth-generation embodied intelligence measurement system, in-house software and optical measuring machines, proven with users across aerospace, automotive and general machining. This dedicated liquid cooling machine marks AEH's move from general-purpose supplier to builder of measurement equipment for specific industries.
From breaking through the barriers of aero engine blade measurement in its early years to building a purpose-made machine for liquid cooling today, AEH has consistently turned engineering independence into something concrete. As chairman Dr Song Jianzhong puts it, equipment earns the right to be specified by proving itself in the most demanding applications - nowhere else.
From manufacturing efficiency to measurement efficiency: the liquid cooling supply chain needs precise enablement
The liquid cooling industry is at a historic turn from bespoke work to standardised volume production. As cooling moves from optional to essential, how well measurement keeps pace is becoming the variable that decides whether that transition succeeds. If precise measurement of liquid cooling pipework is the final piece in supply chain quality control, the dedicated machine AEH showed here is a systematic way of supplying it. By replacing make-do general equipment with a machine built for the industry, it is changing how precision measurement enters this sector: from inspection at the end to measurement on the line, and from individual instruments to system-level support.
AEH's engineering team notes that this machine is not an isolated product but an example of the company's technology platform reaching deeper into a specific industry. The team will keep refining measurement algorithms and workflow fit based on customer feedback from the field, working toward a more complete combination of hardware, software and service for liquid cooling, while watching for similar needs in energy storage and high-power charging. As liquid cooling grows upward and measurement roots downward, the reshaping of precision measurement is becoming a force in this shift that is hard to overlook.