Patent ID: 7641101

Claim:
A method of pre-assembling a cooling system for an electronics system, the method comprising: providing a support fixture for facilitating assembly of a liquid-based cooling system to be transferred to an electronics system having multiple heat generating components to be cooled, the support fixture including a multi-level support surface and multiple positioning dowels extending from a portion thereof; positioning multiple liquid-cooled cold plates on the support surface of the support fixture employing the multiple positioning dowels extending therefrom, the multiple positioning dowels providing and preserving relative positioning and alignment of the multiple liquid-cooled cold plates for facilitating subsequent coupling thereof to the multiple heat generating components to be cooled, the relative positioning and alignment of the multiple liquid-cooled cold plates mirroring the relative positioning and alignment of the multiple heat-generating components of the electronics system to be cooled; sealing multiple coolant-carrying tubes in fluid communication with the multiple liquid-cooled cold plates, the multiple coolant-carrying tubes facilitating passage of liquid coolant through the multiple liquid-cooled cold plates when the liquid-based cooling system is operational; and sealing a header subassembly to the multiple coolant-carrying tubes to provide an assembled liquid-based cooling system on the support fixture, the header subassembly comprising a coolant supply manifold secured in fluid communication with coolant supply tubes of the multiple coolant-carrying tubes and a coolant return manifold secured in fluid communication with coolant return tubes of the multiple coolant-carrying tubes.