Twist Seals

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About

This project was a year long research and engineering competition in high school through the Engineering Education Scheme. Students teams get partnered with a company to solve real word problems. My team got partnered with Rittal, a German server cabinet company.

Microsoft had pointed out to Rittal that the way they currently sealed the interface where wires left the cabinets was allowing a large amount of hot air to leak out and re-circulate into the servers, instead of beind directed away and cooled. My team was assigned to come up with a more efficient way to seal the interface.

We designed the Twist Seal: two 3D printed rings an a latex tube. You feed the wires through and when you are done you rotate the outside ring, causing the latex to wrap around the wires and create a nice seal.

Our design reduced air leakage from 60% to about 1-2% (depending on how many wires you put through). Not only this, but it is also safe to use on fibre optics cables as it does not apply enough force to crush them.

Due to the vast improvement on the old sealing method, Rittal decided to internationally patent the design, with me and my other two teammates being named inventors.

What it looks like: