Steve Sides of the American Coatings Association, and Sonja Schulte of Vincentz Network welcomed attendees to the 2012 American Coatings Conference on Monday afternoon after the Pre-Conference Tutorials. The American Coatings Conference is the largest technical conference in the world. This year’s conference promises to showcase significant findings from the R&D scientists driving research in our industry. Sides reported that 200 abstracts were submitted for the 96 available presentation spots.
Shulte gave the results of a survey given to attendees regarding future trends and current challenges. The survey results show that the most popular coatings technologies for the future are:
- Functional/smart coatings and materials;
- Waterborne technology;
- Sustainable technologies; and
- High-solids.
A second question on whether fossil-based materials will be replaced by renewable resources received mixed results. Schulte indicated that this question will be an interesting one to follow over the course of the next several years.
A third question asked attendees which regulations take up most of their time. VOC regulations had the most responses, followed by REACH and food-contact regulations.
We are looking forward to what promises to be an interesting and informative conference.
