Control Engineering 2007 Engineers’ Choice Awards

The industrial automation space is one of constant change. At Control Engineering, our job is to keep you informed of the latest trends and technologies. It is in this spirit that the Engineers’ Choice program was created. Eligible products were those introduced in North America and available for purchase between Jan. 1, and Nov. 1, 2007. More than 150 new products were nominated. Control Engineering readers returned more than 870 completed ballots via e-mail. Awards and honorable mentions were given in 21 subcategories of products.Winners are listed below; click on the category head for more information, and for name of the products earning honorable mentions.

Application and Programming Software
Application software
SolidWorks 2008 - SolidWorks Corporation
Enterprise integration/analysis
FactoryTalk Historian Site Edition - Rockwell Automation
Programming sofware
LabVIEW 8.5 - National Instruments

Human Machine Interface and Industrial PCs
HMI hardware
Maple Systems Silver Series Plus - Maple Systems
HMI software
Wonderware InTouch 10.0 - Invensys
Industrial PCs
Stealth LPC-450Little PC - Stealth Computer Corp.

Motors, Motion Control & Drives
Motors
Adjustable Speed Brushless BMC & BSM - Baldor Electric
Motion Control
Allen-Bradley CompactLogix L45 - Rockwell Automation
Drives
Allen-Bradley PowerFlex DC drives - Rockwell Automation

Networks/Communication Hardware & Software
I/O products & cabling
Bluetooth I/O Module - connectBlue
Network software & diagnostics
KEPServer EX - Kepware Technologies
Switches, routers & gateways
7000 Series, Gigabit capable industrial Ethernet switches - N-Tron
Wireless solutions
FlexPower Wireless Nodes - Banner Engineering

Machine and Embedded Control
Controllers
Modicon M340 PAC - Schneider Electric
Discrete sensors & readers
AccuProx Analog Inductive Sensor - Eaton Corporation
Embedded products
ThinkCore W345 embedded computer - MOXA Technologies

Instrumentation & Control Components
Components & connectors
Fluke 771 Milliamp Process Clamp Meter - Fluke Corporation
Instrumentation & analysis
ABB SM500F four channel recorder - ABB Instrumentation
Process sensors
UWTC Thermocouple-to-Wireless Connector - Omega Engineering

Process and Advanced Control
Advanced control
RS Logix 5000 Fuzzy Designer - Rockwell Automation
Process & batch control
Simatic PCS 7 Box 416 - Siemens Energy & Automation

Engineers' Choice Extras
Honorable Mentions are listed within each category of winners.
Technology Leaders
2007 New Product Nominees
2007 New Product Compendium with deep links to product information