By Joe Feeley, Editor in Chief
HOT AIR sometimes isn’t a good thing. That’s particularly true when it comes to exaggerated claims of product performance that machine control designers would be wise to steer clear of.
For six years now we’ve trusted you to tell us—with your votes—which of the vendors provide the best value for you, based on your experiences using those products—not the distracting descriptions.
Joe Feeley is editor in chief for Control Design and Industrial Networking. Email him at [email protected] or check out his Google+ profile.
It’s those evaluations that make some automation suppliers’ products rise above the rest. After the usual careful consideration, Control Design’s readers told us how they rate the technology value of suppliers in 54 product categories.
Our model for this balloting remains unchanged from its 2001 origins. This summer, we sent ballots to about 15,000 Control Design subscribers who tell us they have influence over the purchase of industrial automation and control products for industrial machines.
The vendors themselves aren’t eligible to vote, and we didn’t knowingly let any supplier get a ballot. If we did come across a vendor in the responses, we gleefully deleted it. This voting is for our machine builder and system integrator readers and no one else.
The ballot again was what’s known as an unaided survey. We don’t include a dropdown list of vendors or product brands to choose from. We listed the hardware and software categories and asked participants to name the company that provides the best value for the products they work with. We received responses from more than 250 readers.
As they voted for the best technology value providers, we also had them rate the service and support they receive from these companies on a scale of 1 (poor) to 5 (excellent). Our published results include only those companies that received at least a 5% share of the vote in their category.
2005 Readers' Choice Awards
2004 Readers' Choice Awards
2003 Readers' Choice Awards
Change Is GoodWhile we report results in four additional categories this year, the number of companies making the cut this year climbed significantly to an even 100, up from 82 companies in the 2005 results. That’s a hopeful indication of increasing competition. We found 25 companies joining the elite list for the first time or returning after at least a year’s absence. Voters dismissed seven companies that were listed in 2005.
As happens every year, many companies are easy winners in their category. This year 34 of the 54 (compared with last year’s 34 of 50) categories had winners with margins of greater than 10 percentage points. Among that group, eight companies received a 50% majority vote in their category, down slightly from nine last year.
Another indication of increased competition: the number of close races decided by a margin of 5 percentage points or less increased again to 12, compared with 10 in 2005. Five of the races ended in statistical dead heats between two or more companies, one more than last year.
Eight companies won in multiple-categories. Ever-present Rockwell Automation won or tied for first place in 21 hardware and four software categories. Other multiple winners include Emerson Process Measurement with four category wins; General Electric/GE Fanuc won three times, while Hoffman, Honeywell, National Instruments, Parker, and Pepperl+Fuchs each won twice.
Service Is Sizzling
Of the 100 distinct companies that appear in the category results, you chose to award 82 of them with service and support scores of 4.0 or better (very good-to-excellent performance as measured on a scale of 1-5). In contrast, last year you gave service kudos to 67% of the listed companies.
While you chose to put more companies on the service kudos list this year, you awarded your highest praise (4.5 or higher) to just one company—Schneider Electric—compared with seven companies last year. But you largely duplicated the number of times you awarded at least 4.3 scores compared with last year.
Any company finding itself on the service and support list should be pleased to receive this vote of confidence, and some of the companies achieved terrific service marks more than just once. The Service and Support table (p.46) lists those companies that readers identified as providing service with ratings of 4.0 or better.
Voters awarded 28 companies (compared with 23 last year) a service score of 4.0 or better in at least one category. Rockwell Automation achieved this in 30 product categories. Siemens received 4.0 or better ratings in seven categories, AutomationDirect, National Instruments and Schneider Electric each were honored six times, while Bosch Rexroth and Phoenix Contact made the grade five times.
Emerson Process Management and Turck were given service honors in four categories, while Banner Engineering, Beckhoff, Endress+Hauser, and Invensys were named three times. B&R Industrial Automation, Baldor, Danaher, Hoffmann, Honeywell, IDEC, ifm efector, Omega Engineering, Omron, Parker Hannifin, Pepperl+Fuchs, Red Lion Controls, STI, Wago, and Yaskawa all were honored twice.
Here, with products listed alphabetically, is this year’s “all-star team.” As always, we welcome your analysis and thoughts about the outcome.
Sixth Annual Readers' Choice Awards
(*Differences of less than 3% are not statistically significant)
Alarm/Annuniciator 1. Rockwell Automation – 20% 2. Ametek Panalarm – 15% 3. Edwards – 8% Ronan – 8% *Federal Signal – 6% Ball Screw/Lead Screw Controller, CNC Controller, Loop Controller, Motion Controller, PLC Data Acquistion System Data Recorder Encoder/Resolver Hydraulic System Controls/Components Industrial Computer Industrial Electrical Connectors/Cordsets Industrial Enclosure—Metallic Industrial Enclosure—Non-Metallic Industrial Enclosure/Housing Purge System Industrial Network Components (Wired) Industrial Network Hubs/Routers/Switches Linear Actuator/Slide/Guide Machine Vision System Measurement, Flow Measurement, Level Measurement, Load Cell/Weighing System Measurement, Pressure |
Measurement, Temperature Measurement, Vibration Motor, Industrial Electric Motor, Linear Motor, Servo Motor, Stepper Motor Starter Operator Interface Terminal Panel Meter Pneumatic System Controls/Components Power Supply Presence Sensing Programmable Safety Controller Relay Safety Network Components Safety Relay Single-Board Computer Software, CNC Software, Data Acquisition Software, Electrical CAD (E-CAD) Software, HMI 1. Rockwell Automation – 50% 2. B&R Industrial Automation – 5% Beckhoff – 5% Bosch Rexroth – 5% National Instruments – 5% Schneider Electric – 5% Software, PC-Based Machine Control Software, PLC Programming Stack Light Tower Terminal Blocks Wire & Cabling
2005 Readers' Choice Awards
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The 2006 Readers’ Choice
Service and Support Leaders
The readers tell us these companies provide very good (4.0) to excellent (5.0) service in these categories. Only companies that received the minimum 5% vote share were considered.
4.5
Schneider Electric Programmable Logic Controller
4.4
AutomationDirect – HMI Software
AutomationDirect – PLC Programming Software
AutomationDirect – Programmable Logic Controller
AutomationDirect – Terminal Blocks
Banner Engineering – Safety Relay
Emerson Process – Level Measurement
Emerson Process – Temperature Measurement
Endress+Hauser – Flow Measurement
Endress+Hauser – Pressure Measurement
Mettler Toledo – Load Cell/Weighing System
National Instruments – Data Recorder
National Instruments – PC-Based Machine Control Software
Parker – HMI Software
Rockwell Automation – Presence Sensing
Rockwell Automation – Programmable Safety Controller
Schneider Electric – Motion Control Software
Turck – Industrial Electrical Connectors/Cordsets
Turck – Intrinsic Safety System/Component
Turck – Presence Sensing
Yaskawa – Industrial Electric Motor Drive
4.3
Acopian – Power Supply
Baldor – Industrial Electric Motor Drive
Banner Engineering – Machine Vision System
Banner Engineering – Safety Network Components
Beckhoff – Motion Control Software
Beckhoff – PC-Based Machine Control Software
BEI – Encoder/Resolver
Bosch Rexroth – Motion Controller
Bosch Rexroth – Servo Motor
Bud Industries – Industrial Enclosure-Non-Metallic
Dell – Industrial Computer
Emerson Process – Pressure Measurement
Hoffmann – Industrial Enclosure-Metallic
ifm efector – Presence Sensing
Invensys – Pressure Measurement
National Instruments – Data Acquisition Software
National Instruments – Motion Control Software
Numatics – Pneumatic System Controls/Components
Opto22 – Input/Output Systems
Phoenix Contact – Industrial Electrical Connectors/Cordsets
Phoenix Contact – Power Supply
Phoenix Contact – Terminal Blocks
Puls – Power Supply
R.Stahl – Intrinsic Safety System/Component
Red Lion Controls – Operator Interface Terminal
Rittal – Industrial Enclosure-Non-Metallic
Rockwell Automation – Data Acquisition Software
Rockwell Automation – Data Acquistion System
Rockwell Automation – Encoder/Resolver
Rockwell Automation – HMI Software
Rockwell Automation – Industrial Electric Motor
Rockwell Automation – Industrial Network Components (Wired)
Rockwell Automation – Input/Output Systems
Rockwell Automation – Loop Controller
Rockwell Automation – Operator Interface Terminal
Rockwell Automation – PLC Programming Software
Rockwell Automation – Programmable Logic Controller
Rockwell Automation – Vibration Measurement
Rockwell Automation – Terminal Blocks
Schneider Electric – PLC Programming Software
Schneider Electric – Safety Relay
Siemens E&A – CNC Software
Siemens E&A – Operator Interface Terminal
STI – Safety Network Components
Turck – Industrial Network Components (Wired)
4.2
AutomationDirect – Operator Interface Terminal
B&R Industrial Automation – Motion Control Software
Beckhoff – Industrial Computer
Belden – Wire & Cabling
Bosch Rexroth – Industrial Electric Motor Drive
Bosch Rexroth – Motion Control Software
Emerson Process – Flow Measurement
Enerpac – Hydraulic System Controls/Components
EZAutomation – Operator Interface Terminal
Festo – Pneumatic System Controls/Components
Galil Motion Control – Motion Controller
GE Fanuc – CNC Software
Hirschmann – Hubs, Routers, Switches
Hoffman – Enclosure/Housing Purge System
Idec – Power Supply
ifm efector – Flow Measurement
Invensys – Data Recorder
Krohne – Flow Measurement
Magnetrol – Level Measurement
National Instruments – Machine Vision System
N-Tron – Hubs, Routers, Switches
Omega Engineering – Level Measurement
Omega Engineering – Load Cell/Weighing System
Parker Hannifin – Linear Actuator/Slide/Guide
Patlite – Stack Light Tower
Pepperl+Fuchs – Enclosure/Housing Purge System
Pepperl+Fuchs – Intrinsic Safety System/Component
Phoenix Contact – Industrial Network Components (Wired)
Precision Digital – Panel Meter
Red Lion – Controls Loop Controller
Rockwell Automation – Alarm/Annuniciator
Rockwell Automation – Industrial Electric Motor Drive
Rockwell Automation – Motion Control Software
Rockwell Automation – Motor Starter
Rockwell Automation – Power Supply
Rockwell Automation – Relay
Rockwell Automation – Safety Relay
Schneider Electric – Relay
Siemens E&A – CNC Controller
Siemens E&A – HMI Software
Siemens E&A – Programmable Safety Controller
Simpson Electric – Panel Meter
Wago – Terminal Blocks
Weidmüller – Terminal Blocks
4.1
Advantech – Single-Board Computer
Alpha Wire – Wire & Cabling
Baldor – Industrial Electric Motor
Bosch Rexroth – Ball Screw/Lead Screw
Cognex – Machine Vision System
Danaher – Stepper Motor
Eaton/Vickers – Hydraulic System Controls/Components
Federal Signal – Stack Light Tower
Hammond – Industrial Enclosure-Metallic
Invensys – Data Acquisition System
Lambda – Power Supply
Lapp USA – Wire & Cabling
National Instruments – Data Acquisition System
Phoenix Contact – Operator Interface Terminal
Pilz Automation – Safety Safety Network Components
Power-One – Power Supply
Rockwell Automation – Industrial Computer
Rockwell Automation – Motion Controller
Rockwell Automation – PC-Based Machine Control Software
Rockwell Automation – Servo Motor
Rockwell Automation – Stack Light Tower
Schneider Electric – Level Measurement
Siemens E&A – Programmable Logic Controller
Sierra Instruments – Flow Measurement
Sola/Hevi-Duty – Power Supply
STI – Safety Relay
Wago – Input/Output Systems
4.0
Ametek Panalarm – Alarm/Annuniciator
Astro-Med – Data Recorder
AutomationDirect – Input/Output Systems
B&R Industrial Automation – Industrial Computer
Danaher – Encoder/Resolver
Edwards – Alarm/Annuniciator
Endress+Hauser – Temperature Measurement
Hardy – Load Cell/Weighing System
Heidenhain – Encoder/Resolver
Honeywell – Level Measurement
Honeywell – Temperature Measurement
IDEC – Relay
NSK – Ball Screw/Lead Screw
Omron – Loop Controller
Omron – Relay
Oriental – Motor Stepper Motor
PHD – Linear Actuator/Slide/Guide
Pro-face/Xycom – Industrial Computer
Pyromation – Temperature Measurement
Regal Beloit – Industrial Electric Motor
Rockwell Automation – CNC Controller
Rockwell Automation – Safety Network Components
Rockwell Automation – Stepper Motor
Saginaw Engineering – Industrial Enclosure-Metallic
Siemens E&A – Loop Controller
SMC – Pneumatic System Controls/Components
Watlow – Temperature Measurement
Yaskawa – Servo Motor
2005 Readers' Choice Awards
2004 Readers' Choice Awards
2003 Readers' Choice Awards
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