Catalogue manifolds fix the port count, the spacing and the thread for you. Your loop was not designed around a catalogue: five branches where stock bodies have four, 62 mm spacing where stock is 60, a G1/4 loop that must meet one NPT instrument. EKINSUN machines the manifold to your port count, your spacing, your threads. From 1 piece, quote in 12 hours.
EKINSUN LTD is a custom parts manufacturer, and a manifold enquiry usually starts the same way: the loop exists — cold plates chosen, pump chosen, tubing run — and the one part that ties it together is the one part no catalogue lists. Coolant distribution is geometry: how many branches, at what spacing, in which thread, exiting which face. When those four answers match a stock body, buy the stock body. When they do not, this page is the alternative.
| Construction | How it works | When it is the right call |
|---|---|---|
| Drilled-gallery block | Galleries cross-drilled through a solid block, drilling entries closed with threaded plugs, ports on several faces | Compact distribution near the pump or CDU — the same construction hydraulics has trusted for decades |
| Drilled bar manifold | One long gallery down a bar, branch ports drilled and tapped at your exact spacing | A row of take-offs feeding several cold plates — the rack-manifold geometry, at bench scale |
| Milled-channel plate + sealed lid | Distribution channel milled into a plate, closed with a sealed lid — a cold plate without the device | Wide, flat distribution where a bar will not fit, or where the manifold doubles as a mounting plate |
We quote the construction your loop geometry actually asks for — and say so when the simpler one is enough. The machining behind it is ordinary CNC milling and drilling done carefully: gallery intersections deburred so the first week of operation does not send chips to your pump, threads cut to their own standards, plugs where the drill entered.
| Parameter | Working figure | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Port threads | G1/4, G3/8, G1/2 BSPP · 1/8 to 1/2 NPT · hose barbs — mixed on one body | Each thread cut to its own standard, so each port seals the way that standard intends |
| Port count and spacing | To your drawing — 62 mm is as machinable as 60 | Spacing is a milling coordinate, not a catalogue step |
| Main gallery | Ø 4–12 mm drilled; longer galleries deep-hole drilled | Sized to your flow, not to a stock bore |
| Wall between galleries | ≥ 2.5 mm working minimum | Thinner walls drill fine and then weep under pressure and vibration |
| Drilling entries | Closed with threaded plugs, positions on the approval drawing | Cross-drilling needs an entry; the plug is part of the design, not an afterthought |
| Mounting faces | Flatness 0.1 mm class | A manifold bolted flat stays sealed; one bolted onto a bow works the threads loose |
| Leak / pressure check | On request; test pressure agreed on the approval drawing | The result travels with the part |
| Materials | 6061-T6 default · 304/316 for aggressive coolants and mixed-metal loops · CW614N brass (US ≈ C360) · 7075-T6 only when the manifold is also a structural member — for coolant distribution it buys nothing over 6061 | Chosen against the loop metals — see the galvanic warning below |
| Cleanliness | Galleries deburred at intersections, flushed, dried, ports capped | Chips left in a gallery end up in someone's pump — cleanliness is part of the part |
Two of those rows deserve their reasoning in full. On threads: a G1/4 BSPP port seals on its face — a bonded washer or an O-ring — while an NPT port seals on the taper itself with sealant, which is why mixing them on one body is only safe when each is cut to its own standard instead of bridged with adapters. On galleries: a standard twist drill runs comfortably to about 5× its diameter, so a Ø8 mm gallery past roughly 40 mm of depth moves to deep-hole tooling — the drawing decides the tooling, not the other way round.
The galvanic question outranks the material question. An aluminium manifold in a loop with copper cold plates and brass fittings becomes the anode of a slow battery — it corrodes from the inside while looking perfect outside. Keep the loop in one metal family, or run the correct inhibited coolant, and we ask about your loop before quoting because of exactly this.
One freedom a manifold has that a cold plate does not: thermal conductivity is irrelevant here. 6061 sits near 167 W/m·K and 304 stainless near 16, a factor of ten — and for a manifold it does not matter, because the part distributes coolant instead of conducting heat. That is why stainless, priced out of many cold plates, is a perfectly economical manifold material when the coolant chemistry asks for it.
| What you need | Stocked? | The honest route |
|---|---|---|
| A stock manifold whose ports, spacing and thread already fit | Stocked in depth | Buy it off the shelf — it will beat our price, and for that you don't need us |
| A complete CDU — pump, sensors, controls in one unit | Yes — sold as units | Buy the unit; that is a product, not a machining order |
| Acrylic PC watercooling distro plates | Yes — a retail world of its own | Its own makers and shops; not our lane, and we say so |
| Long welded stainless rack manifolds in production volume | The thermal integrators build them by the rack row | Their lane — welded tube programs are what they tool for |
| Your port count and spacing on one body — quantity 1 to tens | No catalogue lists your geometry | Machined from solid to your drawing, from 1 piece |
| Mixed thread standards on one manifold — G1/4 beside NPT beside a barb | Catalogues keep one standard per body | A normal order here — each thread cut to its own standard |
| Replacement for an obsolete or discontinued manifold | The maker is gone; no listing exists | From your drawing or the physical part — galleries taken back to nominal, not copied as found |
| One manifold for a CDU test bench or an edge-rack retrofit | Stock geometry does not reach it | Machined block or bar to the loop you built, in ones and tens |
"Bench CDU loop, five take-offs at 62 mm spacing feeding five cold plates, G1/4 branches, one 3/8 NPT return to the chiller, 6061 body about 300 mm long. One piece now, three if the bench design is cloned."
That is a complete enquiry — branches, spacing, threads, material, length, quantity. The drawing is kept, so the three later are cheaper than the one now. Downstream of this manifold sit the custom cold plates it feeds; the fittings and adapters between them live at liquid cooling fittings; and the hydraulic cousin — same construction, higher pressure — is the custom machined manifold block.
Direct-to-chip cooling multiplied the number of cold plates per system, and every one of them needs feeding. The production side of that world is served — rack manifolds ship with the rack. What a development bench or a retrofit still cannot buy is the odd distribution in between: the manifold for a CDU test bench, the take-off row for a prototype accelerator card cluster, the block that lets one coolant distribution loop reach an edge rack the original design never planned for. EKINSUN machines custom liquid cooling manifolds for direct-to-chip development loops — blocks, bars and distribution plates to your port count and spacing — from 1 piece, quote in 12 hours. A typical bench distribution runs a 3/8 or 1/2 main line into G1/4 branches — and the branch count is the one number a stock body will not move.
For a replacement of an existing manifold: a drawing, or post the physical part — internal galleries cannot be reconstructed from a few caliper numbers, and we say so rather than guess. A dimensioned approval drawing comes before machining. Quote in 12 hours; production typically 5 working days after approval, plus courier.
Yes — that is the reason this page exists. Port count and spacing follow your drawing, and G1/4 beside NPT beside a hose barb on one body is a normal order. Each thread is cut to its own standard rather than bridged with adapters, so each port seals the way its standard intends.
A drilled-gallery block suits compact distribution with ports on several faces — the same construction as a hydraulic manifold block. A drilled bar suits a row of branch ports at fixed spacing feeding several cold plates. A milled-channel plate with a sealed lid suits wide, flat distribution where a bar will not fit. We quote the one your loop geometry actually asks for — and say so when the simpler one is enough.
6061 aluminium is light and machines economically; 304/316 stainless stands up to aggressive coolants and mixed-metal loops; CW614N brass machines beautifully and seals threaded fittings well. The deciding question is the loop, not the manifold alone: an aluminium manifold in a loop with copper and brass parts becomes the galvanic anode and corrodes from the inside — keep the loop in one metal family or run the correct inhibited coolant.
Yes, by the two routes that actually work for a part with internal galleries: a drawing, or the physical manifold posted to us. Internal drillings, plug positions and thread depths cannot be reconstructed from a few caliper numbers and a photo, and we say so rather than guess. Worn faces and corroded galleries are taken back to nominal, not copied as found.
EKINSUN — a custom parts manufacturer machining coolant distribution manifolds to the customer's drawing from 1 piece, quote in 12 hours. Honest boundaries: a complete CDU with pump, sensors and controls is a unit you buy, not a machining order; acrylic PC watercooling distro plates are a retail lane with their own makers; and long welded stainless rack manifolds in production volume belong with the thermal integrators. Machined blocks, bars and plates in ones and tens are ours.
Branches, spacing, threads, loop metals, quantity. A sketch is enough. Reply in 12 hours.
// In short
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Branches, spacing, threads, loop metals — approval drawing first, machining after. One piece now, the rest from the same drawing later.