"Matrikon's
commitment to new product development, technical support, and the overall
variety of Matrikon products truly makes open connectivity very easy,
regardless of the brand of DCS or PLC systems installed."
Chris M. Gabriel, Distributed
Control Systems Specialist with Agrium Kenai Nitrogen Operations
Like many plant floor operations, Agrium Inc. was faced with the task of implementing a communications infrastructure that would allow the ability to access process control data from different data sources. These data sources included Foxboro I/A and Siemens-Moore APACS DCSs. The main problem was that data from the DCSs was delivered in a proprietary format, making the system cumbersome, inflexible and costly to modify. Matrikon was able to step in and turn what was once a closed system into an open system using the OPC standard – all at a lower cost than it would take to maintain the current closed system.
Agrium Inc. is a leading global producer of fertilizers and other agricultural products and services. Agrium is one of the top nitrogen producers in the world. Chris Gabriel, a Distributed Control Systems Specialist with Agrium’s operation in Kenai, Alaska, headed up the project to integrate an open connectivity standard throughout the five plants that comprise Agrium’s operation in Alaska.
The initial project included Matrikon’s OPC Data Manager, OPC Redundancy Broker and OPC Server for Foxboro I/A. Matrikon’s wide product offering enabled Gabriel to connect multiple devices from different vendors all using Matrikon’s products. Matrikon’s dedicated support te