Hampshire-based specialist engineering firm Aqua Cooling was honoured by the international Institute of Physics (IOP) during a parliamentary reception at the Palace of Westminster on 18th October.

The team was presented with a Commended Innovation award for its patented Leak Prevention System (LPS) that puts a basic scientific principle to work in a commercial application for the first time.

Picking up the award at the event, which was sponsored by Alok Sharma, MP for Reading West, were Aqua directors Kevin Lancaster and Simon Davis, with Fareham MP Suella Fernandes.

Suella Fernandes said: “The UK’s innovative businesses, in physics and beyond, are solving major challenges in areas from healthcare to defence and manufacturing, and they will be a major driver of the UK’s future economic success. It was particularly inspiring to learn about the work of Aqua Cooling and I was very pleased to be able to congratulate the company’s directors on their success.”

Aqua Cooling sales director Simon Davis said: “This exciting Commended Innovation award from the Institute of Physics is extremely rewarding for the whole Aqua team. It represents valuable recognition from the scientific community and highlights the enormous significance and potential of our LPS within the data centre industry.”

By incorporating the LPS into its range of water-based cooling systems, Aqua can guarantee optimum efficiency and continuous, 100 per cent leak-free performance  — which makes its systems ideal for installation and operation in sensitive environments such as data centre and on-chip cooling.

Aqua’s LPS uses the Venturi effect and the basic scientific premise that water under negative pressure cannot escape through a hole or breach in a pipe, hose, or joint.

Mr Davis said: “We spent a substantial amount of time trialling pipework sizes and designs to ensure sufficient velocity, and spent time with Venturi designers to overcome issues of noise and vibration.”

The ground-breaking system has already won the Hampshire-based cooling specialist industry-wide recognition. It has previously won a string of awards for its state-of-the-art development and design including a 2015 Queen’s Award for Enterprise (Innovation), also in recognition of the LPS.

The Institute of Physics is the world’s leading international scientific membership society and works tirelessly to advance physics for the benefit of society; its annual IOP Awards recognise substantial contributions to the global reputation and development of physics.