The company was also named a finalist in the Pennsylvania Growth Company of the Year category.
The Technology Provider award recognizes a company that provides technology applications, equipment, resources and/or other solutions to enhance its customers' operations. Phoenix Contact received this year’s award for its innovations in WirelessHart technology. In addition, the company hired more than 100 people in 2011, leading to recognition in the Growth Company category.
In 2010, Phoenix Contact introduced the first WirelessHart gateway with integrated WiFi. In 2011, the company added the WirelessHart adapter to its line. The new adapter reduces capital equipment costs by attaching up to four Hart devices with a single adapter.
By bringing these two products to the process industry, Phoenix Contact makes it much easier and more cost-effective for process engineers to access previously stranded data or add new measurement points without the expense of trenching and running cables. This technology has the potential to be widely used in Pennsylvania’s Marcellus Shale gas fields, especially around the wellhead, for faster deployment and better integration of multivariable instruments. This will allow more efficient processes.
In addition, Phoenix Contact nominated Nancy Kiscadden, math teacher at Lower Dauphin High School, as Educator of the Year. Kiscadden won the competition’s first-ever People’s Choice Award, which honors an individual or company that is raising awareness in Pennsylvania’s technology community by earning the most global visibility through PA Tech Awards.
Kiscadden has served as mentor for Lower Dauphin’s Nanoline Contest team for the past two years. This Phoenix Contact-sponsored contest challenges high school and middle school students to design and build an automation system using Phoenix Contact’s intuitive Nanoline controller. Lower Dauphin won the competition in 2011, earning their team a trip to the Hanover Fair in Germany. Hanover Fair is the world’s largest industrial tradeshow.
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