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UQDB

A cold plate carrying blind-mate plugs advancing toward the receptacle rail on a rack manifold

OCP UQDB specification · Rev 1.0 · separate document

UQDB blind-mate couplings — docking for cold plates

Name: UQDB blind-mate coupling
Brand: DryLink

The plug rides on the server cold plate, the socket sits on the tray and backplate, and the tray self-aligns as it slides home.

Plug width, max

18 mm

MIS-A radial

0.5–1.0 mm

Engagement, recommended

12–30 lbf

Three values above: per the OCP UQDB specification

Request docking review

Blind mating is a tolerance question, not a looks question.

Whether a tray docks without a hand on it depends on how much misalignment the design allows, and on what absorbs it.

UQDB and UQD are governed by two separate specification documents. A complete loop reads both: per the OCP UQDB specification, per the OCP UQD specification.

Port density and pitch

Three bores · one envelope · per the OCP UQDB specification

UQDB03 1/8 in non-spill construction only

UQDB04 1/4 in standard construction

UQDB06 3/8 in standard construction

Plug width, max

18 mm

Preferred pitch

20 mm

Check before

Layout freeze

At the preferred pitch, a tray face takes a full port row the layout can be frozen against. Confirm the pitch before the tray drawing is released; a pitch decided afterwards moves the whole row.

A blind-mate plug and its receptacle facing each other in bare stainless

One blind-mate pair of the one-eighth-inch class, bare stainless — **UQDB03 · 1/8 in**Non-spill construction only.

One blind-mate pair of the quarter-inch class, bare stainless — **UQDB04 · 1/4 in**Standard construction.

One blind-mate pair of the three-eighths-inch class, bare stainless — **UQDB06 · 3/8 in**Standard construction.

Port pitch, preferred · 20 mm

Plug width, maximum · 18 mm

Both values: per the OCP UQDB specification

Misalignment and what floats

The centre of this page · per the OCP UQDB specification

MIS-A radial: 0.5–1.0 mm
MIS-A angular: 0.5°
Float absorbs: ±1.0 mm

Two lines, two jobs. The first pair is what the design is allowed to be off by; the second is what the floating interface takes out before the seal faces ever touch. Set them as one budget, not two independent numbers.

Discussed: radial floor · angular window · float travel · seal seat left out of the budget

Without the float, the first docking pass grinds the seal faces; the leak then appears at the seat rather than at the coupling body, which is why the float is a life item and not a convenience.

The cold plate side

Face materials and flatness · per the OCP UQDB specification

Macro of a lapped cold plate face with the receptacle ring seated in it

Copper C11000 the specification sets this as one accepted face material

Aluminium 6061-T6 / T651 the specification sets both tempers as accepted

Cast aluminium A360 the specification sets this as an accepted casting alloy

Coupling face flatness ≥0.05 mm per the OCP UQDB specification

Material choice is a thermal and cost decision; the face flatness is the interface condition. Both are stated by the specification, not by DryLink.

Blind-mate states, in the rack

Float interface · socket row · docked position

Macro of a floating plate with its guide pins, coil springs and the seal seat behind them — **Float interface**Plate, pins and springs — the parts that absorb the budget.

A manifold socket row seen square-on with tray plug rows stopping short of it in the foreground — **Manifold side**The socket row the tray plugs line up against.

A tray slid fully home with its blind-mate plugs seated in the manifold sockets behind it — **Docked**Tray home, plugs seated, no hand on the coupling.

A docking fixture holding a plug plate square to a receptacle row — **Dock fixture**What holds the plate square during a first docking trial.

Macro of two blind-mate halves meeting with the guide pins already engaged — **Mid-travel**Guides engaged, seal faces still apart.

A panel-mounted socket with its mounting plate and seal ring visible — **Panel socket**Socket side mounted through a backplate.

A rack-side panel with a machined coupling spigot, blue latch levers beside it and a black hose running out of frame — **Rack side**A rack face with couplings and hose.

Four blind-mate coupling pairs in bare stainless arranged in ascending order on a near-black ground — **Family**The bores this page prices and sizes against.

A blue-panelled cabinet with white framing, its upper doors carrying mesh-backed viewing windows — **Cabinet unit**Mesh-windowed doors on a cabinet.

The manifold side of the interface

Socket row, seen square-on · same three envelope values

A UQDB plug family aligned to a manifold port row, seen square-on

Plug width, max 18 mm per the OCP UQDB specification

MIS-A radial 0.5–1.0 mm per the OCP UQDB specification

Engagement, recommended 12–30 lbf per the OCP UQDB specification

The tray side carries the plug, the rack side carries the socket row: the same envelope has to hold on both.

Docking force against the stack

Recommended values · per the OCP UQDB specification

Engagement, recommended

12–30 lbf

Withdrawal, recommended

10–35 lbf

Verified in

The stack

Insertion force is the end of the tolerance chain, not a separate spec: the tighter the float absorbs, the larger the force the tray carries. Verify latch and rail loads in the stack, before the tray layout is frozen.

Testing references

Four standards · mapped one by one in the test plan

Hydraulic ISO 18869:2017

Fatigue ISO 19879

Connections ISO 16030

Ports SAE J513

The four numbers above are testing references, cited so the review package can be checked line by line. The test plan maps each one to a station and a record; the one-page spec sheet travels with the quote.

Request the per-standard test plan

Docking tolerance review

Send the tray drawings.

Tray face and backplate, plus the port count per tray. The answer is a docking tolerance review against MIS-A and the float travel.

Request docking review

One business day · English quote + one-page spec sheet · designed to the OCP UQDB specification