Our 19th Survey!Control Readers Pick Their Preferences
in More than 100 Process Automation
Technologies.
Welcome to the Annual Control Readers’ Choice Awards, our 19th edition. We’ve surveyed our readers, and we asked them, in a series of unaided (that means no preselected choices in dropdown boxes) surveys for their selections among all the solution providers they regularly work with. As we have for the past several years, we surveyed not only the print magazine’s readers, but also subscrib-ers to our digital media outlets: email newsletters, webinars, pod-casts and all of the other media you can find at ControlGlobal.com. This year’s awards represent the collective opinion of over 1000 automation professionals.
The results still reflect a North Amer-ican bias. However, each year we see more responses from automation pro-fessionals from outside the United States. This has made some clear changes in the standings.
R E A D E R S ’ C H O I C E A W A R D S
For the third year in a row, we’ve broken out control plat-form awards by discipline. We’ve named them “Best in Con-trol” (see Table 1), and each category represents end-user selections in the six basic process control disciplines: Con-tinuous Regulatory Control, Batch Process Automation, Safety/Emergency Shutdown, Sequential Logic, Continu-ous Sheet/Web Monitoring and Control…and a new cat-egory for 2011, Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA). We’ve also broken out the top readers’ choices by industry vertical (see Table 2).
If you compare these results to the 2010 Readers’ Choice Awards (January 2010, Control, p. 34, www.controlglobal.com/articles/2010/RCA2010_1001.html), you can see some jockeying for position, with Invensys Operations Manage-
ment appearing in several more categories, and Siemens Industry, Schneider Electric and GE Intelligent Platforms having a bigger footprint in process automation.
As you read deeper into the awards, you’ll see that we have also asked our readers to rank solution providers of a wide range of instrumentation, software, control and infrastruc-ture products. To be mentioned in these Readers’ Choice Awards at all, regardless of final position, means that the solu-tion provider has not only consistently provided exceptionally fine quality products and service, but also has demonstrated those capabilities to a large number of very loyal end-user customers. These are the suppliers who have consistently demonstrated excellence in customer service and responsive-ness. We congratulate all of the companies on the list.
Continuous Regulatory ControlEmerson Process Management
2. Honeywell Process Solutions 3. Rockwell Automation 4. ABB 5. Siemens Industry 6. Yokogawa Electric 7. Invensys Operations Management 8. GE Intelligent Platforms
Safety/Emergency ShutdownInvensys Operations Management
2. Rockwell Automation3. Emerson Process Management4. Honeywell Process Solutions5. Siemens Industry6. HIMA7. ABB8. Pilz
Batch Process AutomationEmerson Process Management
2. Rockwell Automation3. Siemens Industry4. Honeywell Process Solutions5. ABB6. Invensys Operations Management7. Yokogawa Electric8. GE Intelligent Platforms
Sequential Logic ControlRockwell Automation
2. Siemens Energy & Automation 3. Emerson Process Management 4. Schneider Electric 5. Honeywell Process Solutions 6. ABB 7. Invensys Operations Management 8. GE Intelligent Platforms
Continuous Sheet/Web Monitoring & ControlHoneywell Process Solutions
2. ABB 3. Emerson Process Management 4. Rockwell Automation 5. Siemens Industry 6. Invensys Operations Management 7. Yokogawa Electric 8. Schneider Electric
Supervisory Control & Data AcquisitionInvensys Operations Management
2. Emerson Process Management3. Rockwell Automation4. Honeywell Process Solutions5. Siemens Industry6. GE Intelligent Platforms7. ABB8. Yokogawa Electric
Table I. “Best in Control” Readers’ Choice Awards by Process Automation Discipline
R E A D E R S ’ C H O I C E A W A R D S
Chemicals Manufacturing
Electric Power Generation
Food & Beverage Manufacturing
Metals, Minerals & Mining
Oil & Gas Extraction
Batch Process Automation
Emerson Process Management
Emerson Process Management
Rockwell Automation Rockwell Automation Emerson Process Management
Continuous Regulatory Control
Emerson Process Management
Emerson Process Management
Rockwell Automation Emerson Process Management
Emerson Process Management
Continuous Sheet/Web Monitoring & Control
Honeywell Process Solutions
- - ABB -
Safety/Emergency Shutdown
Invensys Operations Management
Siemens Industry Rockwell Automation Rockwell Automation Invensys Operations Management
Sequential Logic Control
Rockwell Automation Rockwell Automation Rockwell Automation Rockwell Automation Rockwell Automation
Supervisory Control & Data Acquisition
Emerson Process Management
Invensys Operations Management
Invensys Operations Management
Rockwell Automation Invensys Operations Management
Petroleum Refining Pharmaceuticals & Life Sciences
Plastics & Rubber Manufacturing
Pulp & Paper Manufacturing
Water & Wastewater Processing
Batch Process Automation
Emerson Process Management
Emerson Process Management
Emerson Process Management
Emerson Process Management
Emerson Process Management
Continuous Regulatory Control
Honeywell Process Solutions
Emerson Process Management
Rockwell Automation Emerson Process Management
Rockwell Automation
Continuous Sheet/Web Monitoring & Control
- - Honeywell Process Solutions
Honeywell Process Solutions
-
Safety/Emergency Shutdown
Invensys Operations Management
Emerson Process Management
Rockwell Automation Rockwell Automation Honeywell Process Solutions
Sequential Logic Control
Rockwell Automation Rockwell Automation Rockwell Automation Rockwell Automation Rockwell Automation
Supervisory Control & Data Acquisition
Honeywell Process Solutions
Emerson Process Management
Honeywell Process Solutions
Emerson Process Management
Rockwell Automation
Table II. “Best in Control” Readers’ Choice Awards by Process Automation Discipline and Industry
34 www.controlglobal.com J A N U A R Y / 2 0 1 1
R E A D E R S ’ C H O I C E A W A R D S
Elsewhere in the Control Room, Competency Reigns SupremeIn addition to the six basic process control disciplines, our readers ranked their favorite vendors in their core competencies, from advanced process control software to simulation software, and many competencies in be-tween. While the top rankings in this table go to the large integrated suppliers, this is where smaller supplier com-
panies, such as ExperTune, ControlSoft, Mynah Tech-nologies and Kepware, shine. You don’t have to be a be-hemoth in the market to produce products and service that attract loyal end users. The spirit of entrepreneur/engineer-driven, small, niche companies is still strong in the process automation marketplace.
The Operators’ Best FriendsSoftware and systems competencies are fine, but operators have to have the means of seeing what is going on, under-standing what they see, and easily controlling the process they’re running. In this group of Readers’ Choice Awards, we find companies that have consistently demonstrated ex-pertise in hardware design and manufacturing. Some of these companies, such as Ametek Panalarm, Watlow Elec-tric, Federal Signal and others, have been doing what they
do for a long time. Emerson, GE, Honeywell, Yokogawa and Rockwell each bring over 100 years’ experience in ef-fectively communicating process conditions to operators.
Interesting changes in this year’s list: Advantech took the Industrial Computer category, Invensys Operations Man-agement surged in the Process Loop Controller category, and Rockwell once again took the Operator Interface Ter-minal and Panel Display categories.
AnnunciatorAmetek Panalarm
2. Ronan Engineering3. Rockwell Automation4. Siemens Industry5. Honeywell Process Solutions6. Federal Signal
Industrial ComputerAdvantech
2. Rockwell Automation3. Siemens Industry4. Beckhoff Automation5. Panasonic Toughbook6. B&R Industrial Automation7. Kontron8. Phoenix Contact
Operator Interface TerminalRockwell Automation
2. Siemens Industry3. Honeywell Process Solutions4. GE Intelligent Platforms5. Emerson Process Management6. Pro-face America7. Maple Systems8. Daisy Data Displays
Panel DisplayRockwell Automation
2. Red Lion Controls3. Siemens Industry4. Yokogawa Electric5. GE Intelligent Platforms6. Pro-face America7. Omron Industrial Automation
Process Loop ControllerInvensys Operations Management
2. Honeywell Process Solutions3. Emerson Process Management4. Siemens Industry5. Yokogawa Electric6. Rockwell Automation7. ABB8. Watlow Electric
RecorderYokogawa
2. Honeywell Process Solutions3. Invensys Operations Management4. ABB5. Endress+Hauser6. Siemens Industry
Advanced Process Control SoftwareEmerson Process Management
2. Honeywell Process Solutions3. Rockwell Automation/Pavilion4. Siemens Industry5. Yokogawa Electric6. Invensys Operations Management7. ABB8. AspenTech
Alarm Management SoftwareHoneywell Process Solutions / Matrikon
2. Yokogawa Electric3. Emerson Process Management4. PAS5. Siemens Industry6. Rockwell Automation7. Invensys Operations Management8. TiPS
Asset Management SoftwareEmerson Process Management
2. Siemens Industry3. Yokogawa Electric4. Honeywell Process Solutions5. Rockwell Automation6. SAP7. IBM Maximo
Calibration Management SoftwareEmerson Process Management
2. Fluke3. Honeywell Process Solutions4. Yokogawa Electric5. Siemens Industry6. Prime Technologies/ProCal7. Beamex
Design/Documentation SoftwareAutodesk
2. Emerson Process Management3. Microsoft / Visio4. Intergraph5. Siemens Industry6. Bentley Systems
Human-Machine Interface SoftwareRockwell Automation
2. Invensys Operations Management3. GE Intelligent Platforms4. Siemens Industry5. Emerson Process Management6. Honeywell Process Solutions7. Yokogawa Electric
Loop-Tuning SoftwareEmerson Process Management
2. Honeywell Process Solutions / Matrikon
3. ExperTune4. ControlSoft5. Rockwell Automation
Neural Network SoftwareEmerson Process Management
2. Rockwell Automation / Pavilion3. Honeywell Process Solutions
OPC ConnectivityMatrikon OPC
2. Kepware Technologies 3. Rockwell Automation4. Emerson Process Management
PLC Programming SoftwareRockwell Automation
2. Siemens Industry3. GE Intelligent Platforms4. Schneider Electric
SCADA SoftwareRockwell Automation
2. Invensys Operations Management3. Siemens Industry4. GE Intelligent Platforms5. Schneider Electric
Simulation SoftwareHoneywell Process Solutions
2. Mynah Technologies3. Rockwell Automation4. Siemens Industry5. AspenTech6. MathWorks
R E A D E R S ’ C H O I C E A W A R D S
38 www.controlglobal.com J A N U A R Y / 2 0 1 1
It’s All About InfrastructureIn order to connect the controllers and transmitters and final control elements in the field with each other and the control room, each process plant requires a sophis-ticated and significant communications infrastructure. These systems are the nuts and bolts that hold the plant control system together, and see to it that measurements and control signals get to the valves or drives they need to get to.
While there has been much ballyhoo about wireless over the past few years, the bulk of plantwide commu-nications, especially for control, are still accomplished over wires. Rockwell again topped the Input/Output Sys-
tem category. Pepperl+Fuchs, Moore Industries-Interna-tional, Belden and Emerson all reprised their finishes from 2010. Phoenix Contact edged out SolaHD in the Power Supply category, and also nipped by Rockwell Au-tomation in the Terminal Block category.
The Wireless Infrastructure category showed the most change, as you might expect, with new names like Elpro Technologies (part of Cooper Wireless), ProSoft Tech-nology, Phoenix Contact and GE MDS appearing this year. We’ll likely see more players as the demand for IEC 62591 (WirelessHART—the only international wireless sensor standard) grows in 2011.
Input/Output SystemRockwell Automation
2. Siemens3. Honeywell Process Management4. Phoenix Contact5. Yokogawa Electric6. ABB7. Emerson Process Management8. Opto 22
Intrinsic SafetyPepperl+Fuchs
2. MTL Instruments3. Phoenix Contact4. Rockwell Automation5. R. Stahl 6. Turck7. Siemens Industry
Power SupplyPhoenix Contact
2. SolaHD3. Rockwell Automation4. Acopian5. Lambda6. Siemens Industry7. Weidmüller
Signal ConditionerMoore Industries-International
2. Phoenix Contact3. Invensys Operations Management4. Pepperl+Fuchs5. Acromag6. Yokogawa Electric
Terminal BlockPhoenix Contact
2. Weidmüller3. Rockwell Automation4. Wago5. ABB
Wire & CableBelden
2. Lapp3. Anixter
Wireless InfrastructureEmerson Process Management
2. Cisco3. Honeywell Process Solutions4. Siemens Industry5. Elpro Technologies6. ProSoft Technology7. Phoenix Contact8. GE MDS
R E A D E R S ’ C H O I C E A W A R D S
Going With the FlowThere are 10 flow measurement technologies commonly in use in the process industries. We asked our readers to rank the suppliers they felt epitomized the best in each of the most popular nine flow measurement categories and in flow switches. Flow measurement is hard on the best of days, and there are some applications too hard to do. The companies listed in this table have some of the most detailed applications expertise and domain knowledge of any suppliers in any cat-
egory in the Readers’ Choice Awards.Emerson Process Management, FCI and Endress+Hauser
dominate these categories, as usual, but it is nice to see the re-emergence of a proud old name in flow measurement, Brooks Instrument. Another old name has also re-emerged, Brodie International. Both Brooks and Brodie have storied histories, and at one time were both part of Rockwell and later, Emer-son. You just can’t keep a good flowmeter supplier down.
Our Level BestLevel measurement is undoubtedly one of the very earliest measurement technologies. The oldest existing level meter is the Nilometer in Egypt, which is well over 2000 years old.
Still, we have great difficulty with this measurement, and there are numerous technologies being used to make it. We present our readers’ selections for the 10 most popular
continuous-level technology suppliers and the suppliers of two types of point-level switches. As you might expect, the two largest vendors of field instruments, Emerson Process Management and Endress+Hauser, dominated this list, but smaller niche companies, such as FCI, Magnetrol, Ohmart/Vega and the recently acquired ABB subsidiary K-Tek, also did well, thanks to their loyal following of end users. This is a set of categories where sheer bloody competence reigns.
Level Gauge, Electrical Property-BasedEndress+Hauser2. Emerson Process Management3. Ametek Drexelbrook4. Magnetrol5. Siemens Industry6. Ohmart/Vega
Level Gauge, Float/DisplacerEmerson Process Management2. Magnetrol3. Endress+Hauser4. Dresser Masoneilan5. ABB6. Honeywell Process Solutions
Level Gauge, Contacting RadarEmerson Process Management2. Endress+Hauser3. Ohmart/Vega4. Magnetrol5. Ametek Drexelbrook6. Krohne
Level Gauge, Non-Contacting RadarEmerson Process Management2. Endress+Hauser3. Ohmart/Vega4. Ametek Drexelbrook5. Siemens Industry6. Krohne7. Magnetrol8. Honeywell Process Solutions
Level Gauge, Inventory GradeEmerson Process Management2. Honeywell Process Solutions3. Endress+Hauser4. Siemens Industry5. Varec
Level Gauge, LaserABB/K-TEK
2. Optech3. Sick
Level Gauge, MagnetostrictiveABB/K-TEK
2. Magnetrol3. Emerson Process Management4. Ametek Drexelbrook5. Kenco Engineering6. Endress+Hauser
Level Gauge, NuclearOhmart/Vega
2. Berthold Technologies3. Endress+Hauser4. Thermo Scientific
Level Gauge, UltrasonicEndress+Hauser
2. Siemens Industry/Milltronics3. Emerson Process Management4. Ohmart/Vega5. Ametek Drexelbrook6. Krohne
Level Switch, Electrical Property-BasedEndress+Hauser
2. Ametek Drexelbrook3. Magnetrol4. Emerson Process Management5. SOR 6. Ohmart/Vega
Level Switch, VibrationEndress+Hauser
2. Emerson Process Management3. Ohmart/Vega4. Ametek Drexelbrook5. Magnetrol
Magnetic Level IndicatorMagnetrol
2. ABB/K-Tek3. Krohne4. ISE Magtech5. GEMS Sensors6. Kenco Engineering
Coriolis FlowmeterEmerson Process Management2. Endress+Hauser3. Krohne4. Yokogawa Electric5. ABB6. Invensys Operations Management7. Siemens Industry8. Brooks Instrument
Magnetic FlowmeterEmerson Process Management2. Endress+Hauser3. ABB4. Yokogawa5. Krohne6. Invensys Operations Management7. Siemens Industry8. Yamatake/azbil
Open Channel FlowmeterEndress+Hauser2. Siemens Industry/Milltronics3. Emerson Process Management4. Ametek Drexelbrook5. Hach Company6. ABB7. Teledyne/ISCO8. Ohmart/Vega
Positive Displacement FlowmeterEmerson Process Management
2. Brooks Instrument3. Brodie International4. ABB5. Endress+Hauser6. Bopp & Reuther7. Omega Engineering
Thermal Mass FlowmeterFCI
2. Endress+Hauser 3. Brooks Instrument4. Sierra Instruments5. Kurz Instruments6. ABB7. Magnetrol8. Fox Thermal Instruments
Turbine FlowmeterEmerson Process Management2. Hoffer Flow Controls3. Liquid Controls Sponsler 4. Endress+Hauser5. ABB6. Badger Meter
Ultrasonic FlowmeterEndress+Hauser2. Siemens Industry/Controlotron3. Emerson Process Management4. GE Measurement & Control5. Krohne6. Flexim
Variable Area FlowmeterBrooks Instrument
2. ABB3. Krohne4. Emerson Process Management5. Dwyer Instruments6. King Instrument7. Endress+Hauser
Vortex FlowmeterEmerson Process Management2. Yokogawa Electric3. Endress+Hauser4. ABB5. Invensys Operations Management
Flow SwitchFCI
2. Endress+Hauser3. ifm efector4. Magnetrol5. Emerson Process Management6. Dwyer Instruments7. Krohne8. Gems Sensors
R E A D E R S ’ C H O I C E A W A R D S
The Heat (and Pressure) Is On As you might expect, the supplier of the most commonly used pressure transmitters and temperature transmitters overwhelm-ingly dominated this category. If you haven’t guessed, it was Emerson Process Measurement that won every pressure and temperature transmitter category except Infrared Temperature
Sensors and Infrared Imaging/Thermography. In a bit of a sur-prise, JMS Southeast took top honors in the RTD category, and Fluke Raytek/Ircon took the infrared categories. Fluke Raytek/Ircon is part of Danaher. Omega Engineering, Pyromation and Thermo Electric also made the temperature honor roll.
A Process Analysis PrimerAs quality and performance have become more impor-tant in the batch, hybrid and continuous process indus-tries, online process analyzers have proliferated, gotten more robust, and less costly. In this table, we present the top honors in the online process analyzer group. This year, ABB surged to lead four of the seven categories of online analyzers. Emerson Process Management took
two categories, while GE Measurement and Control took one.
Online analyzers are not yet to the level of pressure or temperature measurement in terms of simplicity, ro-bustness and operator friendliness, but new operator in-terface designs by ABB and Emerson are clearly making themselves felt in the readers’ choices.
Ambient Gas AnalyzerABB
2. MSA3. Emerson Process Management
Density/Concentration AnalyzerEmerson Process Management
2. Endress+Hauser3. Berthold Technologies4. Yokogawa Electric5. Ohmart/Vega6. ABB
Humidity/Moisture AnalyzerGE Measurement & Control
2. Vaisala3. Cosa Instrument4. Emerson Process Management5. Ametek6. Rotronic
pH/ORP/Conductivity AnalyzerEmerson Process Management
2. ABB3. Yokogawa Electric4. Endress+Hauser5. Hach6. Mettler Toledo7. Invensys Operations Management
Process ChromatographABB
2. Siemens Industry3. Emerson Process Management4. Yokogawa
Process SpectrometerABB
2. Emerson Process Management3. Siemens Industry
Stack Gas/Emissions AnalyzerABB
2. Emerson Process Management3. Ametek Thermox4. Siemens Industry5. Sick Maihak5. Yokogawa Electric
Pressure TransmitterEmerson Process Management
2. ABB3. Yokogawa4. Endress+Hauser5. Honeywell Process Solutions6. Siemens Industry
Resistance Temperature DetectorEmerson Process Management
2. JMS Southeast3. Pyromation4. Omega Engineering5. ABB6. Thermo Electric
ThermocoupleJMS Southeast
2. Emerson Process Management3. Omega Engineering4. Pyromation5. Thermo Electric
Temperature TransmitterEmerson Process Management
2. ABB3. JMS Southeast4. Endress+Hauser5. Honeywell Process Solutions6. Pyromation7. Yokogawa Electric8. Moore Industries-International
Infrared Temperature SensorFluke Raytek/Ircon
2. Ametek Land3. Omega Engineering4. Mikron Infrared
Infrared Imaging/ThermographyFLIR Systems
2. Fluke Raytek/Ircon3. Ametek Land4. Emerson Process Management
R E A D E R S ’ C H O I C E A W A R D S
Valves and Motors and Drives, Oh My!
Elsewhere in the Field
Of course, all the control systems, I/O, operator interfaces and advanced control software in the world won’t work if the final control elements don’t work. This generally means a valve or a motor drive and a motor. As usual, Emerson Process Management’s Fisher Valve division took the Con-trol Valve category, with mentions going to Flowserve, the recent GE acquisition Dresser Masoneilan, and two Euro-pean suppliers, Samson Controls and Metso Automation.
In the Electric Valve Actuator category, Rotork Controls re-prised its 2010 showing, while Emerson, Auma, Flowserve and Limitorque rounded out the category.
Rockwell Automation took the Electric Motor Drive cat-egory, while Baldor Electric (even more recently acquired by ABB) took the electric motor category. This is an exam-ple of the sometimes North American bias of our reader-ship, with Siemens taking second in both categories.
As always, last in our story, but certainly never least in the hearts of our readers, the final group of Readers’ Choice Awards includes essential field instrumentation technologies that don’t really fit in any other logical group we’ve discussed so far. These include “data acquisition”—which means many things to different people, apparently—enclosures, purge sys-tems, fittings, calibrators, remote terminal units (RTUs), vi-
bration instrumentation and weighing systems. This year, Rockwell and Invensys led in the DAQ cat-
egory, while perennial winners Pentair Technical Products (previously listed as Hoffman Engineering), Pepperl+Fuchs Bebco, Swagelok, GE Measurement and Control (listed last year as GE Energy) and Mettler-Toledo round out the pack. Fluke took the portable calibrator category once again.
Control ValveEmerson Process Management
2. Flowserve3. Dresser Masoneilan4. Samson Controls5. Metso Automation
Electric Valve ActuatorRotork Controls
2. Emerson Process Management3. Auma Actuators4. Flowserve5. Limitorque
Pneumatic Valve ActuatorEmerson Process Management
2. Flowserve3. Metso Automation
On/Off ValveMetso Automation
2. Emerson ASCO3. Flowserve
Electric Motor DriveRockwell Automation
2. ABB3. Siemens Industry4. Yaskawa5. Danfoss6. Baldor Electric
Electric MotorBaldor Electric
2. Siemens Industry3. GE Energy4. ABB5. Emerson Electric/U.S. Motors (now NIDEC)6. WEG Electric7. Toshiba8. SEW-Eurodrive
Data Acquisition SystemRockwell Automation
2. Invensys Operations Management3. National Instruments4. Honeywell Process Solutions5. Yokogawa6. Siemens Industry7. GE Intelligent Platforms8. Emerson Process Management
EnclosurePentair Technical Products
2. Rittal3. Hammond Manufacturing4. Saginaw Control & Engineering5. Intertec-Hess6. Cooper Crouse-Hinds7. Pepperl+Fuchs
Purge SystemPepperl+Fuchs/Bebco
2. Expo Technologies
Portable CalibratorFluke
2. GE Druck3. Altek4. Emerson Process Management5. Transmation6. Beamex7. Martel/Beta8. Ametek
Remote Terminal UnitRockwell Automation
2. Emerson Process Management3. Control Microsystems4. ABB5. Siemens Industry
Instrument FittingsSwagelok
2. Parker-Hannifin
Vibration InstrumentationGE Measurement & Control
2. Emerson Process Management
Weighing System/Load CellMettler Toledo
2. Hardy Instruments3. ABB4. Rice Lake Weighing Systems5. Siemens Industry6. Vishay BLH
Reprinted with permission from Control Magazine, January 2011. On the Web at www.controlglobal.com.© PUTMAN. All Rights Reserved. Foster Printing Service: 866-879-9144, www.marketingreprints.com.