Liquid nitrogen is critical to various industries like biomedical research and forensic analysis.
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.
Liquid nitrogen sits at the center of some of the most demanding work done today, from forensic analysis and IVF (in vitro fertilization) storage to biomedical research, dermatology, and manufacturing processes that depend on extreme cold. In these environments, liquid nitrogen is not just a convenience—it is infrastructure. When supply is interrupted or quality drifts, work stops, samples are put at risk, and safety margins narrow.
Most organizations treat liquid nitrogen like a background utility. As long as deliveries arrive on time, it stays out of sight and out of mind. But when demand spikes or equipment fails, the limits of that model show up fast. Reliability depends on trucks, schedules, and systems the customer doesn’t control.
As a cryogenic equipment distributor, Rutherford & Titan® saw those limits firsthand.
Life as a Cryogenic Equipment Distributor
Rutherford & Titan began operations in 2018, supplying systems used to store, handle, and work with liquid nitrogen. From the start, the company supported laboratories, clinics, and industrial customers by helping them select equipment, coordinate installations, and keep systems running once they were in service.
That role put Rutherford & Titan close to the realities of supporting cryogenic systems after installation. They worked directly with customers once equipment was in the field, helping troubleshoot issues, coordinate service, and keep systems running. When something went wrong, they were often the first call.
When Customers Started Asking for More
As customer inquiries increased, Rutherford & Titan spent more time helping users work through issues with their existing cryogenic equipment. Those conversations were practical and hands-on, focused on understanding system behavior and keeping liquid nitrogen available.
Over time, a clear pattern emerged. Many of the biggest pain points traced back to overseas dependence: electrical standards that didn’t align with U.S. requirements, slow access to replacement parts, limited design transparency, and long turnaround times when something went wrong. After the COVID pandemic exposed how fragile those supply chains could be, the pressure only increased.
Some of Rutherford & Titan’s customers, who already relied on liquid nitrogen, started asking about alternatives to traditional delivery. Some wanted better cost control.
Others were focused on reliability, safety, or logistics. Many simply did not know on-site generation was an option.
“We didn’t go after anybody,” says Amir Amirsadeghi, founder and CEO of Rutherford & Titan. “Customers were seeking us out. They’d say, ‘I didn’t know you could do this. Walk me through it.’”
Those conversations shifted from education to expectations. Customers were no longer just curious about how on-site generation worked. They wanted to know who controlled the design, how systems would be serviced, and what long-term support actually looked like.
“We started asking why we weren’t building this [on-site liquid nitrogen generators] ourselves in the U.S.,” says CEO Amir Amirsadeghi.
Rutherford & Titan understands the realities of supporting cryogenic systems after installation.
Defining the Control Problem
Designing liquid nitrogen generators meant taking responsibility for how the system behaved under every condition, not just how it was specified on paper. The machines had to meet U.S. electrical standards, scale across multiple sizes, and remain serviceable once deployed, often without immediate on-site access.
Each generator combined compressors, valves, pressure regulation, temperature control, and safety logic. Small systems and large systems shared the same fundamentals, but not the same hardware footprint. The control platform had to adapt without forcing redesigns at every size.
Each liquid generator combines compressors, valves, pressure regulation, temperature control, and safety logic.
Visibility was just as important as control. Once systems were in the field, Rutherford & Titan needed to see what was happening inside the machine in real time. Diagnosing issues remotely, understanding trends, and reducing unnecessary service visits were core requirements.
Amir Amirsadeghi partnered with an engineer, Evan Kuklinski of Enthim Industries, LLC., who had built and supported refrigeration systems before. His view was shaped by experience: the platform had to expose data cleanly, support flexible I/O, and remain usable over time, not just at commissioning.
“He kept coming back to the same point,” Amirsadeghi says. “If we’re going to support these systems properly, we need intelligence from the field.”
A Control Platform That Could Scale
The control platform was no longer just a way to run the machine. It was part of the service model.
Rutherford & Titan evaluated several established PLC platforms. In practice, many were too rigid, too complex to work with efficiently, or difficult to support once systems were deployed. Those limitations made them poor fits for a growing OEM that needed flexibility and long-term serviceability.
The team ultimately selected Opto 22’s
groov platform based on a small set of practical requirements. Control logic needed to be developed using an
IEC 61131-3 standard environment, which led them to
CODESYS®. Secure remote access had to be available directly on the controller, without external hardware, which
groov supports through OpenVPN®. And the I/O architecture needed to remain flexible as generator designs evolved, whether through software-configurable I/O or expandable modular hardware.
Rutherford & Titan has a number of offerings as an OEM of liquid nitrogen generators.
Inside the Liquid Nitrogen Generator Control System
Rutherford & Titan uses two control architectures across its liquid nitrogen generators: a compact, flexible approach for smaller systems, and a modular and even more flexible design for larger units. Both follow the same control philosophy, but the hardware scales with system size and I/O density.
Smaller generators use
groov RIO, an industrial-grade intelligent edge device that combines control, I/O, networking, and remote access in a compact footprint, making it well suited for 10- to 30-liter-per-day liquid nitrogen generators.
Larger generators, including 60- and 250-liter-per-day systems, use
groov EPIC (
Edge
Programmable
Industrial
Controller). These systems have higher I/O counts and more instrumentation to support additional compressors, valves, sensors, and safety interlocks.
groov EPIC’s modular rack-based I/O lets Rutherford & Titan scale channel count and signal types without redesigning the control architecture.
On the larger systems, the control hardware is paired with a consistent set of I/O modules chosen for flexibility and reuse across generator models:
- GRV-IMA-24 modules handle analog inputs such as pressure, temperature, humidity, and current monitoring.
- GRV-ODCIS-12 modules drive discrete outputs for air handling equipment, compressors, valves, and fans.
- GRV-CSERI-4 modules interface with Modbus®-enabled helium and refrigeration compressors, allowing operating data to be pulled directly into the control system.
- GRV-MM1001-10 multifunction modules provide mixed-use capability where dedicated modules were not practical. These modules are used for digital inputs, liquid sensing, Class C relay outputs for condensing units and alarms, and analog outputs such as 0–10 V signals to drive potentiometers or PWM (pulse width modulation) fan controllers.
That mix allows Rutherford & Titan to keep the same control logic across system sizes while adjusting I/O at the hardware level.