PPG Industries and Kansai Paint have expanded their alliance, known as PPG Kansai Automotive Finishes (PKAF), to include the sale of automotive coatings to Japanese-owned or operated original-equipment manufacturers (OEMs) in Hungary. The business was transferred from a previous venture between Akzo Nobel and Kansai Paint.
SEI Chemical has appointed Dr. Maurice A.S. Stephenson as chief chemist, a new position that has facilities in Los Angeles and sales around the globe. Dr. Stephenson previously was a leading polymer chemist at DuPont, where he synthesized new monomers and polymers for coating applications.
The third Atlas Technical Conference for Accelerated Aging and Evaluation (ATCAE) will take place on September 15-16, 2008 in Oxford, England. The conference will focus on the automotive industry.
The Association for Manufacturing Excellence (AME) will host its Midwest Region Dinner and Networking Event on Tuesday, January 15, from 5:30 to 8:30 p.m. at Harry Caray’s Italian Steakhouse, O’Hare International Center, in Rosemont, IL. The focus of the meeting is on continuous improvement.
Every small but successful coating operation inevitably faces the moment when existing practices are no longer sufficient to meet customer demand. Continued growth requires change. But how can you add automation to your business without compromising on flexibility? A well-designed batch powder coating system can provide the answer.
A few years ago, the coatings world was nano- crazy. Nano- everywhere. I didn’t know what it really meant since there wasn’t an agreed-on definition of “nano-.” Mostly it meant adding a little of something tiny to paint. It didn’t matter if was a 5-micron particle; if it was small, it was nano-. Now “sustainability” has replaced nano- as the hot topic. But what does sustainability really mean?
It’s common knowledge that polyurethane coating technology is an excellent choice for demanding exterior applications such as bridges, stadiums and other large structures. But when maintenance was required inside the Hammond Water Filtration Plant in Hammond, IN, a moisture-cured polyurethane system proved to be the only way to go to coat more than 35,000 ft2 of piping and valves.
Dubbed “RadTech Europe ’07: UV/EB - The Natural Choice” by its organizers, the November event in Vienna was greeted by nature itself dumping snow on attendees trying to get in and out of Austria. But if the weather was brisk, so was activity at the conference, which has become a notable forum for ultraviolet (UV) and electron beam (EB) suppliers to gather every two years and check the pulse of technology and measure its progress.