The winner of the 23rd Annual Woelfel Best Mechanical Engineering Achievement Award is Noble Corporation for it's Aluminum Alloy Riser for Deep Water and Ultradeep Water. The winner of the 2006 Woelfel Distinguished Innovation Award is Kalsi Engineering for their Kalsi Thrust Bearing.

The BMEA finalists included:
Cudd Well Control for Sub-Sea Hot Tap System
Access Oil Tools, LP, Forum Oilfield Technologies for CR-60 Self-Centering Compact Roughneck
 Welker Engineering Company - Integrated High Pressure Constant Pressure Crude Oil Mixing Container

Winners were announced this year at the ASME BMEA Cocktail Reception held annually the first night of OTC to honor the BMEA winners, the Lubinski Best Paper and Geoca Mechanical Engineering Achievement award winners. 

The Lubinski Best Paper was presented to J.K. Vandiver, S. Swithenbank, and V. Jaiswal of MIT and H. Marcollo of AMOG Consulting.  The title of the paper is The Effectiveness of Helical Strakes in the Suppression of High-Mode-Number VIV.  Please click to view the paper.
Carl Langner, former ASME Petroleum Division Executive Committee Chair,  received the Karl Geoca Mechanical Engineering Award.

One of the main tenet of ASME and the petroleum division is to support the art and science of mechanical engineering. Recognition through awards achieves this end in that it encourages innovation and greater levels of professional excellence.

Additionally, awards help to further the careers of practicing engineers. Bestowing awards is one of the greatest pleasures of our organization, because it allows a unique opportunity for the industry as a whole an unencumbered opportunity to look inside itself and discover its own greatness.