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New case study: when a distributor becomes a manufacturer

Posted by Janice Colmer on Apr 29, 2026 7:23:26 AM

Learn from Rutherford & Titan's experience of going from strictly selling to completely building their own liquid nitrogen systems.

As a distributor, you can choose what you sell, but you don’t control how it’s built, how consistent it is, or how it behaves when something goes wrong. You’re tied to other people’s factories, schedules, and quality standards. 

Sound familiar? As a cryogenic equipment distributor, Rutherford & Titan experienced all these limits firsthand.

When their customers were calling on them for support even after product installations, they knew they had to take their operations to the next level and have more control of the whole process.

Read the new case study that explains how and why they went from reseller to manufacturer.

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With the liquid nitrogen industry being heavily dependent on overseas services and equipment, distributor Rutherford & Titan were fully aware of the challenges their customers faced. The more time they spent helping their customers troubleshoot issues and discussing alternative solutions, the more they realized they should just build and manufacture their own, U.S.-based liquid nitrogen systems. But an adaptable control platform was crucial. 

First, they identified the problems they needed to solve: 

  • Overseas dependence
  • Difficulties of meeting U.S. electrical standards
  • Slow access to replacement parts
  • Long turnaround times
  • Limited design transparency

Through Rutherford & Titan's research, they determined the ideal product solution must allow remote monitoring without on-site access, and must be a platform that could scale.

Read the complete case study to learn why groov EPIC and RIO, along with the CODESYS runtime engine, led them to their final solution—which ultimately achieved cost savings and real-time data visibility.

READ CASE STUDY

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You can read the case study on our website or download your own PDF copy.

 


Visit our Case Study library for more application success stories featuring groov EPIC and groov RIO.

Do you have an application you'd like to share? Learn more about our Case Study Program and how it can help set you apart as an industry expert.

 

Topics: Case studies, Remote monitoring, groov EPIC, data visualization, groov RIO, manufacturing

Written by Janice Colmer

Janice has worked at Opto 22 for nearly 20 years and is part of the marketing team that strives to share new and relevant content with the automation industry. She enjoys books, camping, country music, and spending time with family and friends.
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