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| ECS offers industries a platform of proven quality  The European Coatings Show plus Adhesives, Sealants, Construction Chemicals 2009 was the tenth edition of this top international event for the coatings community since 1991. The exhibition took place this year in the Exhibition Centre Nuremberg from 31 March – 2 April and the congress from 30 March – 1 April. Despite the worldwide problems of key customers such as the building industry and motor industry, both events proved the dynamic innovative power of the manufacturers of raw materials and technologies for laboratory, production, testing and measuring.A display as colourful as the German punk music icon Nina Hagen is nowhere near enough today. It has long been taken for granted that coatings and paints as well as sealants, construction chemicals and adhesives must fulfil their basic functions. The task for today's developers and formulators is more complex than ever: additional product properties are called for as well as consideration of environmental aspects, legal directives such as VOC reduction, and cost-effectiveness. A car paint that "heals" small scratches itself when the sun shines, a coating for the hulls of super tankers that reduces barnacle growth under water and saves huge amounts of fuel, or articles in the medical field with a surface that already possesses an antibacterial effect without additional disinfection agents? These are no visions of the future, but just a few of the current issues in the coatings industry – and therefore at the European Coatings Show 2009. The European Coatings Congress again emphasizes how innovative the international coatings industry is. 160 top speakers from all over the world discussed ways into the future with the 461 congress participants – at nine pre-congress tutorials, 15 sessions on coating raw materials, eight on printing inks, adhesives and construction chemicals, special sessions on the EU projects NAPOLEON and AMBIO, and the established session "Science today – coatings tomorrow", which deals with the latest research findings on polymer chemistry relevant to coatings. At the plenary session on Monday, 30 March 2009, the European Coatings Award for the best paper of the many outstanding congress papers at the European Coatings Congress 2009 was presented to Dr. Zhen Wen Fu and his colleagues Dr. Andrew Hejl and Dr. Andrew Swartz from Rohm and Haas, USA, for their paper entitled "Designed diffusion technology: A paradigm shift in film formation". The 806 exhibitors (2007: 838) from 42 countries (2007: 43) at the European Coatings Show 2009 represented a slight decline in numbers, but this was more than compensated for by the recent growth of six per cent in the net display area (2009: 27,490 m˛; 2007: 25,890 m˛). The leading exhibiting nations this year after Germany (346 exhibitors) were China (78 exhibitors), Italy and Great Britain (47 exhibitors each), the Netherlands (39 exhibitors), Switzerland (32 exhibitors) and Belgium (31 exhibitors). The European Coatings Show occupied six halls of the Exhibition Centre Nuremberg for the first time and so presented a bigger event than ever for the 19,756 visitors (including 56 per cent international; 2007: 22,791 / 59 per cent). This made a spacious layout and many impressive stands possible, which allowed better distribution of the flows of visitors and created a pleasant atmosphere for talks. The coatings community meets next year in Charlotte, North Carolina / USA, in April at the American Coatings Show from 13-15 April and the American Coatings Conference from Monday to Wednesday, 12-14 April 2010. The Exhibition Centre Nuremberg is then the scheduled international get-together again in two years’ time, when the European Coatings Show runs from 29-31 March and the European Coatings Congress from Monday to Wednesday, 28-30 March 2011. write your comments about the article :: © 2009 Construction News :: home page |