Frost & Sullivan recognises excellence in product line strategy

Frost & Sullivan Research Manager Sivakumar Narayanaswamy says: "Our research shows that the European market for electric drives was valued at $3.00 billion in 2012, and is expected to grow at a compound annual growth rate of 3.7 per cent until 2017. Manufacturing automation holds a significant proportion of this market and Control Techniques' Unidrive M range is one of the world's most comprehensive classes of drives for manufacturing automation applications."

Control Techniques makes extensive efforts to understand the specific needs of its customers and designs its products to precisely match these needs. The Unidrive M range offers incremental levels of functionality designed to precisely meet the full range of application requirements including the most complex needs in the manufacturing automation sector.

The Unidrive M family is designed to give exceptional control of virtually all types of industrial electric motors in manufacturing automation applications ranging from standard induction, permanent magnet motors to high performance servo motors, and can operate in open or closed loop modes.

Every drive in the Unidrive M family features a totally open creation environment. This means that machine designers using the drives have a wide choice of machine components and are not restricted by closed systems. Unidrive M uses the CODESYS programming platform with industry standard IEC 61131-3 programming languages and standard Ethernet for communication across drives and other industrial devices such as PLCs. Unidrive M also supports connectivity with PROFINET RT, EtherNet/IP, Modbus TCP/IP and EtherCAT devices.

Additionally, Unidrive M's high performance allows manufacturers to improve their machine throughput via advanced motor control. Control Techniques has developed a high bandwidth motor control algorithm for Unidrive M and, combined with the microprocessor technology, the result is extreme stability and high performance in all applications.

Round-the-clock customer support

Narayanaswamy adds: "The large installed base of its drives demonstrates Control Techniques' technical capability and rich expertise in the segment. In addition to a customer-focused approach, key strategies, such as an elaborate service portfolio providing general maintenance, repairs and replacements, and round-the-clock customer support have been the other success factors for the company."

With technology development and investments in the manufacturing automation sector expected to increase in Europe as the economy improves, Control Techniques' strategy of creating a family of drives each tailored to meet specific needs in the manufacturing sector is likely to provide the company with immense potential to expand its customer base. End-users and machine builders will choose the best available option for the desired applications, without paying premiums on unnecessary features which do not suit their requirements.

Based on the aforementioned criteria, Frost & Sullivan selected Control Techniques as the recipient of the 2013 Product Line Strategy Award in the electric drives market for manufacturing automation. Each year, Frost & Sullivan presents this award to the company that has developed a comprehensive product line that caters to the breadth of the market it serves. The award recognises the extent to which the product line meets customer base demands, the overall impact it has in terms of customer value as well as increased market share.

Frost & Sullivan's Best Practices Awards recognise companies in a variety of regional and global markets for demonstrating outstanding achievement and superior performance in areas such as leadership, technological innovation, customer service, and strategic product development. Industry analysts compare market participants and measure performance through in-depth interviews, analysis, and extensive secondary research in order to identify best practices in the industry.

To find out more about Control Techniques, go to www.controltechniques.com, and for further information about Frost & Sullivan's 2013 European Product Line Strategy Award, go to www.industrialautomation.frost.com.