Finding Gold

There's a good reason you don't find gold nuggets lying around everywhere. There are very few of them. Because it so rarely synthesizes naturally, the legendary precious metal must usually be mechanically and chemically separated from tons of ordinary rock. Similarly, difficult mining efforts are equally familiar to the manufacturers, engineers, end-users, and other technical professionals that...

By Jim Montague and Control Engineering staff January 1, 2003

There’s a good reason you don’t find gold nuggets lying around everywhere. There are very few of them. Because it so rarely synthesizes naturally, the legendary precious metal must usually be mechanically and chemically separated from tons of ordinary rock.

Similarly, difficult mining efforts are equally familiar to the manufacturers, engineers, end-users, and other technical professionals that read Control Engineering . They too must search and sort out the most useful solutions to increase efficiency, productivity and, ultimately, their competitiveness and chances for survival and success.

And, though they’re also well-aware of the work needed to seek out and highlight true innovation, Control Engineering editors have an always-rich vein of creative control and automation sources from which to draw stories about useful solutions that can help readers succeed.

”Even faced with 2002’s ongoing economic challenges, control and automation professionals and companies work with customers to create new innovations. And, as always, choosing the 2002 Editors’ Choice Award winners was extremely difficult,” says Mark Hoske, Control Engineering ‘s editor-in-chief. ”Our editorial team selected this year’s 35 award winners from among products featured in the 2002 issues of Control Engineering and Control Engineering Online , including Control Engineering ‘s topical e-mailed newsletters.

”Each month, Control Engineering ‘s editors review hundreds of new product releases-only the best of which are published in print and electronically. Among those, editors select winners by these criteria: service to the industry, technological advancement, and market impact. Each is among the most significant innovations featured in Control Engineering during the past year.”

Areas of editorial product coverage represented are: process and advanced control; instrumentation and process sensors; software and information integration; machine control and discrete sensors; human-machine interface; motors, drives, and motion control; embedded control; and networks and communications.

-Frank Bartos, Dave Harrold, Mark Hoske, Dick Johnson, Jeanine Katzel, Gary Mintchell and Vance Van Doren also contributed to this article.

Click here for the list of 2002 Editors’ Choice Awards winners and links to more information about each one.


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