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2006 Readers' Choice Survey

Aug. 17, 2006
The equipment, services and suppliers selected to make a job easier greatly contribute to on-the-job success. The Readers' Choice survey identifies the leading vendors in more than 40 categories.

The equipment, services and suppliers you choose to use to make your job easier also greatly contribute to your on-the-job success. Selecting the correct tools for the job requires a lot of thought.

What thought process do you use when making those myriad of choices? Is it the product best suited for a particular task? Perhaps it is the most economical choice? Maybe even the reputation of the vendor? Or is it what competitors and peers choose to use?

“We buy what fits the process the best for the best price and quality. We buy elastomers from maybe 40 sources; the same with analyzers, pumps, and other equipment,” explains one survey respondent. “We have corporate contracts with major suppliers.”

A chemical plant depends upon a wide range of tools — software, hardware and services. A key role of engineers is to think about how to effectively put the right tools together, so they work in harmony and optimize the operation of the plant.. It is an ongoing activity that requires constant and careful consideration. One respondent seems to sum up the point of our survey best: “With the internet available, it is easy to find suppliers/manufacturers for a particular product or device. However, it helps to have name recognition as this survey demonstrates. Good survey. It was quite useful to me. It showed how little I know by way of manufacturers and rely heavily on the internet.”

To find out which technology providers our readers think are best, for the third consecutive year, Chemical Processing has conducted its Readers Choice survey. Drawing on the respondents’ experience can hopefully help make your choices easier. This year’s results provide updated listings for a wide variety of products and services used at chemical plants throughout the world. We hope that the results are of value and interest.

Number crunching

Readers received e-mail notices and electronic newsletters or used the link on our Web site to complete the extensive questionnaire. The survey was open for responses for approximately one month. A total of 285 readers took the time to share their opinions about which vendors they prefer in 46 different categories. This is a slight increase over last year’s 276 respondents. The categories were listed, but respondents had to type their selections in a blank text box instead of picking from a pre-selected list of companies in each category. By not restricting input, we eliminated a potential source of bias to the survey. It did make our job harder, though, since we had to tie together various brand and defunct company names with current vendors.

The rankings show the percentage of the total responses in that category that a particular company received; we list only vendors that garnered at least 5% of the votes in a category. Scores within 3% of each other should be considered as statistical ties.

Emerson Process Management, for the second year, placed first in seven categories, and scored highly in several others, as well. Siemens and Alfa Laval are the only other multiple category winners, with two first place finishes each.

If you didn’t participate in our survey this year, we hope that you will consider doing so next year.

And the winner is …

Fred Foster, senior scientist, at BASi CRU, and a resident of Shrewsbury, Pa. is the recipient of the 30-GB video iPod offered as an incentive for our respondents to participate in the Readers Choice survey. His name was randomly selected by computer from all of the respondents.

Chemical Processing's 2006 Readers' Choice Awards

Bearings

    Lubricants  
SKF 34%   ExxonMobil 39%
Timken 15%   Shell 12%
         
         
Boilers/Steam Systems     Materials of Construction  
Babcock & Wilcox 14%   Haynes International 9%
Cleaver-Brooks 11%      
      Mixing Systems  
Catalysts     Lightnin – SPX Process Equipment 39%
BASF (Englehard) 20%   Chemineer 9%
UOP 6%   Philadelphia Mixers 5%
Degussa 6%      
Süd Chemie 5%   Motors  
      Baldor 26%
Centrifugal Pumps     Reliance 21%
Goulds Pumps – ITT 41%   GE 9%
Flowserve 20%   Emerson (US Electrical Motors) 9%
      Siemens 7%
Centrifuges        
Alfa Laval 23%   Pipe/Tubing/Fittings  
Andritz Bird 12%   Swagelok 30%
Westfalia 10%   Parker Hannifin 12%
Western States 5%      
      Plant Design Software  
Compressors     Autodesk 23%
Ingersoll-Rand 39%   Aspen Technology 18%
Atlas Copco 10%   Intergraph  7%
Dresser-Rand 8%   Invensys 7%
Kaeser 6%      
Sullair 6%   Pneumatic Conveying Systems  
      Dynamic Air 19%
Computerized Maintenance Management Software     Conair Group 5%
SAP 23%   Smoot 5%
MRO 11%   Zeppelin 5%
Datastream 7%      
Honeywell 6%   Positive Displacement Pumps  
JD Edwards 6%   Viking 20%
      Dover (Blackmer and Wilden) 9%
Distillation Systems        
Koch-Glitsch 33%   Pressure Instrumentation  
      Emerson Process Management 42%
Dryers     Invensys (Foxboro) 8%
Niro 14%   Honeywell 5%
Wyssmont 9%      
Ingersoll-Rand 5%   Process Analyzers  
      Emerson Process Management 16%
Dust Control Systems     Siemens (Applied Automation) 11%
Donaldson Torit 31%   ABB 9%
MikroPul 9%   Beckman 7%
Flex-Kleen 6%   Thermo Electron 7%
         
Elastomers     Process Automation Systems  
DuPont Performance Elastomers (DuPont Dow) 58%   Emerson Process Management 32%
Parker 9%   Honeywell 23%
Gore 5%   ABB 14%
      Rockwell (Allen-Bradley) 7%
Engineering/Design Services        
Fluor Daniel 15%   Process Simulation Software  
Jacobs 7%   Aspen Technology 45%
      Honeywell (Hysis) 18%
Explosion Protection Systems     Chemstations 9%
Fike 35%   Invensys (SimSci-Esscor) 6%
Fenwal 8%      
Protectoseal 5%   Refrigeration/Chilling System  
      York 27%
Fans/Blowers     Carrier 22%
New York Blower 31%   Trane 16%
Howden Buffalo 10%      
Dresser Roots 9%   Screening Equipment  
Chicago Blower 9%   Sweco 31%
Robinson 5%   ROTEX 20%
      Kason 12%
Feeders        
K-Tron 17%   Seals  
Acrison 8%   John Crane 26%
Accu-Rate 8%   Flowserve 23%
      A.W. Chesterton 9%
Filtration Systems        
Siemens (USFilter) 18%   Spray Nozzles  
Pall Filter 17%   Spraying Systems 42%
3M 8%   Bete Fog Nozzle 33%
         
Flow Instrumentation     Tanks/Vessels  
Emerson Process Management 54%   Pfaudler 7%
Endress+Hauser 11%      
Honeywell 6%   Temperature Instrumentation  
      Emerson Process Management 36%

Heat Exchangers

    Omega 11%
Alfa Laval 25%   Honeywell 8%
Tranter 8%   Invensys (Foxboro) 6%
         
Heat Transfer Fluids     Vacuum Systems  
Dow 66%   Nash_Elmo 24%
Solutia 7%   Busch 11%
      BOC Edwards 11%
Infrared Thermography Equipment     SIHI 9%
FLIR 39%   VacUMax 5%
Mikron 7%      
Raytek 7%   Valves/Actuators  
      Emerson Process Mangement 33%
Instrument Calibration System     Flowserve 11%
Fluke 29%   Metso (Neles-Jamesbury) 6%
Honeywell 8%      
Omega 5%   Vibration Monitoring Equipment  
      Bentley Nevada 50%
Laboratory/Quality Systems     Emerson Process Management 10%
Fisher Scientific 12%   SKF 7%
PerkinElmer 10%      
Hewlett Packard 10%   Water Treatment Systems  
      Siemens (USFilter) 26%
Level Instrumentation     Nalco 14%
Emerson Process Management 35%   GE 9%
Endress+Hauser 11%      
Magnetrol 7%   Weighing Systems  
      Mettler Toledo 43%
      Sartorius 8%
      Rice Lake 6%

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