The Detroit Society for Coatings Technology announced program details for the society’s 26th annual FOCUS Conference, scheduled for May 3.

National Starch & Chemical Co. announced the launch of a new website, www.nationalstarch.com.

PPG Industries Inc., Pittsburgh, said it has been approved as a DaimlerChrysler preferred supplier of automotive-refinish products and services to DaimlerChrysler repair facilities worldwide for warranty and aftermarket collision repair.

Arch Chemicals has appointed The M.F. Cachat Co. distributor of Arch’s biocide products for building products.

The Morehouse-COWLES division of MFIC Corp. has appointed several sales representatives for the division’s line of dissolvers, dispersers, media mills, and mixers.

A California appeals court has rejected a challenge to a VOC-content limit on flat paint imposed in 1996 by the South Coast Air Quality Management District (SCAQMD).

The National Paint & Coatings Association (NPCA) announced that James Bradley, author of the best-selling book “Flags of Our Fathers,” will be the keynote speaker at the association’s 2001 Annual Meeting.

Southern Clay Products said the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas has awarded the company $78 million in a patent-infringement judgment against Süd-Chemie Inc.’s Rheologicals business unit.

Daikin America Inc. announced the start of construction of a 28,000-square-foot expansion of the company’s U.S. headquarters and technical center in Orangeburg.

PPG Industries Inc. Chairman Raymond W. LeBoeuf said the company is poised to exploit a resurgence in economic growth by “building a better mix of businesses, creating breakthrough technologies and improving our customers’ results.”