Vermeer Legacy Building Automation System Integration
Vermeer had a critical piece of equipment on their old building automation system fail, thereby leaving them without any visibility of their manufacturing plants HVAC controls. The automation system was installed nearly twelve years earlier and could no longer access the system programming.
Need For A New System Creates A Plan For Future Solutions:
Because Vermeer had an outdated system with no communication, they wanted to explore the option of an open protocol BAS that would allow them to gradually swap out components as they became defective.
As Baker Group was providing an automation system to Vermeer’s Pavilion project, they became an obvious choice to partner with on the building automation system.
Security and Visibility Needs
With network security being a high concern of Vermeer, the vetting of this solution was very thorough. Baker Group installed Tridium Niagara as a Supervisory platform in conjunction with Schneider Electric unitary controllers. Niagara has some of the best cybersecurity measures available such as Security Certificates, Network Hardening, LDAP (Active Directory), Password Complexity Control, VLAN, and IP Addressing Schemes.
Baker Group’s plan to resolve the visibility issues included Schneider Electric I/A Controllers and Niagara Supervisor utilizing the American Auto-Matrix PUP Driver for communication between the two platforms. Vermeer’s LAN was used for communication between the plant buildings bringing visibility from all locations back to a graphical user interface (GUI). This GUI allows authorized Vermeer staff to log on from any computer on the Vermeer Mile, and for VPN access to Baker Group for programming and troubleshooting.
Vermeer and Baker Group Relationship
Baker Group’s involvement with Vermeer’s campus BAS Integration has grown rapidly in the past two years. Baker Group currently provides automation systems in five buildings along the Vermeer Mile.
Vermeer and Baker Group have a strong partnership that we like to continue. “Expect the Best” from Baker Group and we’ll help keep “Vermeer Strong.”