The Journey to OCP Product Recognition for a Single-Phase Immersion Cooling Fluid

Author: Brian Kinkade, Market Development Manager, FUCHS SE Collection: 2024 OCP Global Summit - Cooling Environments & Immersion

Summary

FUCHS SE became the first immersion cooling fluid vendor to achieve OCP Product Recognition listing on the OCP Marketplace with their RENOLIN FECC 5 SYNTH fluid, completing the process between May and August 2024. This talk documents the full qualification journey, exposing practical challenges in the OCP Immersion Requirements V2.1 specification, and providing what amounts to a first-mover field guide for any fluid vendor pursuing OCP recognition.

The qualification process required submitting a filled Excel workbook against OCP Immersion Requirements V2.1, presenting to the community, receiving review from all requirements document authors, approval by a steering committee, and final marketplace listing. The end-to-end process took approximately three months. Key data submitted included: safety minimums (volume resistivity >2.0 GΩ·m, flash point 153°C, auto-ignition >300°C), dielectric constant 2.07 (measured at 7 GHz via Intel-referred resonant cavity test house), loss tangent 0.0011, oxidation stability >800 hours per IEC 61125, zero global warming potential (GWP) and zero ozone depletion potential, and temperature-dependent cooling performance properties from 25°C to 100°C.

Several specification gaps were exposed during the process: no standardized test method existed for Dk/Df measurement across the 20 MHz–40 GHz range required; the maximum moisture content test for dielectric breakdown at 100% water saturation had no qualified test house capable of performing it; and "STOT" (Specific Target Organ Toxicity) terminology used in the requirements was not clearly defined. These findings are expected to feed into the revision of the requirements document from V2.1 to V3.0. FUCHS also disclosed that OCP product recognition is a self-assessment process — not a third-party certification — and that listed products are reviewed annually against the then-current specification version.