The recent General Assembly and Annual Conference of CEPE, the European Council of the Paint, Printing Ink and Artists' Colours Industry, featured reports on strategies to deal with challenges facing the industry and major trends in society in general.

OpsXchange, San Francisco, announced that ICI Paints, Cleveland, has agreed to participate as a supplier in the OpsXchange supplier network.

www.chemquest.com offers online access to the company's U.S. Coatings and U.S. and European Adhesives Market databases.

Northwest Coatings Corp., Oak Creek, WI, announced the completion of a facility expansion with the addition of a laboratory designed to support growth in the production of UV/EB-cure materials.

Heubach GmbH & Co. KG, Langelsheim, Germany, announced plans for a 20,000-ton-per-year iron oxide production plant in Asia.

PMD Group Inc., Cleveland, formerly the BFGoodrich Performance Chemicals business, announced a name change of the business to Noveon Inc.

The New York Society for Coatings Technology announced plans for a professional-development conference scheduled for Sept. 24-25 at Ceasar's Atlantic City Resort, Atlantic City, NJ.

Akzo Nobel announced the launch of a new business unit focusing on powder coatings, a move the company said reflects an expanded powder-coatings product line.

People to know

PPG Industries Inc. has received a "Green Chemistry Challenge Award" from the U.S. EPA in recognition of the company's development of the Enviro-Prime 2000 lead-free anticorrosion electrodeposition coatings.