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Baldor Receives 'Product of the Year' Award

31 January 2000

Baldor Receives 'Product of the Year' Award and Introduces Largest Group Of New Products

    FT. SMITH, Ark., Jan. 31 -- Baldor Electric Company
markets, designs, and manufactures electric motors and drives and
is based in Fort Smith, Arkansas.  Today Baldor made the following
announcements.
    "Product of the Year" Award ... Baldor's new family of mini inverters
received the coveted "Product of the Year" Gold Award for 1999 from Plant
Engineering magazine.  These annual awards recognize the best new products of
the year.  Baldor's Series 15J/15P family of mini inverters captured the top
prize in the "Electric Motors, Drives and Controls" category.
    "The Plant Engineering Product of the Year Awards were established to
honor the most innovative and useful products introduced to the industrial
plant engineering market each year," said Richard L. Dunn, Editor of Plant
Engineering.  "Winning this award is a significant accomplishment of which you
can be justly proud."
    Baldor's President and CEO, John McFarland, stated, "What makes this award
so significant, is the fact that the plant engineers themselves vote on the
products.  These are the people who choose to use our motors and drives every
day."
    Baldor's new line of mini inverters are the latest additions to its
popular family of adjustable speed controls that feature an easy-to-use Baldor
"keypad language".  Introduced in 1994, Baldor's common keypad language uses a
32 character display and "plain English" commands for setup and operation.
This keypad language is used across Baldor's entire product line, from 1/3 to
800 horsepower, regardless of drive technology -- inverters, vectors, or
servos.
    Plant Engineering magazine is the leading publication to the plant
engineering and maintenance audience.  The magazine is published monthly to
over 116,000 readers in North America.  Baldor has previously received Plant
Engineering "Product of the Year" awards in:

     1998 -  Baldor's Standard-ET Motor Line
     1996 -  ISRr Inverter Spike Resistant Magnet Wire
     1994 -  Series 15H "Washdown Duty" Inverters
     1991 -  5000 Frame-Large AC Motor Line

    New Stock Products Catalog Features over 350 New Products ... Baldor's
January 2000 edition of its popular Stock Products Catalog includes over
350 new products.  This is the largest group of new stock products ever
introduced at one time by Baldor.
    Included are more ratings in Baldor's large AC motor line, with motors now
in stock through 800 horsepower.  New products have been added to Baldor's
explosion-proof motor line.  Also, motor efficiency has been increased on
explosion proof motors to reduce the users' energy costs.
    The heating, ventilation, and air conditioning market is a growth
opportunity.  Baldor has added a new line of definite purpose motors and a
line of inverter controls, both from 1 to 75 horsepower, designed especially
for the needs of this industry.
    Mod-Express(TM) has been a popular program for customers requiring factory
modifications to motors in a short (2-3 days) timeframe.  Mod-Express has now
been expanded to include Baldor's drive products.
    John McFarland, Baldor's President and CEO, commented, "New products have
been important to Baldor's sales growth.  Many of the ideas for new products
come from our customers.  We are fortunate to have the flexibility to quickly
respond to these opportunities and the financial position to add these
products to our stock product offering."