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Top Industry News                            April 23, 2007 Issue

Paint Manufacturers Victorious in California Superior Court re Legal Representation on Lead-Paint Removal
Paint manufacturers won a major victory on April 4 when a California Superior Court ruled that a county cannot hire outside attorneys on contingency when suing for damages for lead-paint removal ... Full Story >>

Akzo Nobel Strengthens Protective Coatings Portfolio With Ceilcote Acquisition
Akzo Nobel, Arnhem, the Netherlands, has signed an agreement to acquire the worldwide Ceilcote business from the German-based KCH Group for close to EUR 12 million ... Full Story >>

Industrial Powder Coatings Has Joined the Greenkote Family
Greenkote PLC has acquired IPC’s coating operations and formed a new entity, Greenkote IPC ... Full Story >>

Huntsman Polyurethanes and Alberdingk Boley Form Partnership for Floor Coatings
Huntsman Polyurethanes has teamed up with Alberdingk Boley, one of Europe’s leading producers of water-based systems for coatings, to develop new concepts for two-pack VOC-free coatings for the industrial flooring market ... Full Story >> 

The People File

Kelly Principi Joins HOCKMEYER Equipment Corp.
As the new Southeast regional sales manager with an office in Charlotte, N.C., Principi’s sales territory includes North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi and Florida ... Full Story >>

O'Sullivan Named Global Marketing Leader for DuPont Titanium Technologies
As the world's largest manufacturer of titanium dioxide, the company has charged Peter O'Sullivan and his team in setting the strategic direction for the coatings, paper and plastics global offering, including product development and marketing programs to drive international growth ... Full Story >>

Shimadzu Corp. Names President of Shimadzu Scientific Instruments
Takeshi Kawami is the new president of Shimadzu Scientific Instruments (SSI), Columbia, Md., replacing Osamu Ando, who served as president for seven years. Kawami will oversee overall sales and management functions for SSI, the American subsidiary of Shimadzu Corp., Kyoto, Japan. Kawami has spent 24 years with Shimadzu Corp.

New Chief Operating Officer for CPS Color Group Oy’s Equipment Operations
Evasio Aspesi has been appointed chief operating officer of CPS Color's Equipment Operations and as a member of CPS Color Group Oy’s management team. Aspesi will work at CPS Color's office in San Felice, Italy.

Global Business Confidence Index Provides an Economic Indicator for International Trade
The Global Business Confidence™ Index, a newly developed and unique indicator of confidence among international business decision makers, promises to become a useful forecasting tool for business leaders involved in international trade as well as for international investors, supply chain managers, policymakers, money managers and financial analysts ... Full Story >> 

Freeman Technology Wins Prestigious Queen’s Award for Powder Tester
Freeman Technology’s award is in the category of Innovation and recognizes the development, commercialization and sales success of the company’s FT4 Powder Rheometer ... Full Story >>
(Pictured at right is  Reg Freeman, founder and managing director of Freeman Technology, with the company's FT4 Powder Rheometer.)

Ciba Enters Printable Electronics Market With Conductive Inks for High-Speed Application 
Ciba is entering the printable electronics market with a new range of conductive inks for radio frequency identification (RFID) antennas, packaging and graphic arts applications. Ciba^® XYMARA^TM Electra inks can be applied at high speeds and have superior line definition and resolution. The first generation of inks has been designed for rotary screen and flatbed screen-printing; inks for other printing methods are in preparation. More information is available at www.xymara.com.

Akzo Nobel Automotive Plastic Coatings Launches New Production Unit in Michigan
Akzo Nobel, Sassenheim, the Netherlands, the world’s largest coatings company, has further dedicated itself to the North American automotive market with the opening of a state-of-the-art production facility expansion in Pontiac, Mich. ... Full Story >>

Atlas Outdoor Exposure Site in South of France Now Accredited
Atlas has announced that its outdoor exposure site in Sanary sur Mer in the Bandol region (south of France) received accreditation to DIN EN ISO/IEC 17025:2005 in early April ... Full Story >>

Maroon to Distribute Solutia Butvar Polyvinyl Butyral Resins and Aqueous Dispersions
Solutia Inc., St. Louis, has appointed Maroon Inc., Avon, Ohio, as its Midwest Specialty Additives distribution sales representative for Butvar^® polyvinyl butyral (PVB) resins and aqueous dispersions, and Solusolv™ 2075, an ultra-low VOC coalescing aid, which will be commercially launched in May 2007 ... Full Story >>

Rohm and Haas Introduces New Acrylic Technology for Architectural Paints
Rohm and Haas, Philadelphia, has launched Rhoplex™ VSR-1050 acrylic emulsion — a performance-driven binder based on new advanced acrylic technology with a unique polymer architecture and ambient crosslinking durability ... Full Story >>

Reichhold Raises Price on Epoxy Coating Products in North America
Effective May 1, a price increase will become effective for epoxy resin and epoxy resin solution coating products sold in North America. Prices will increase by $0.08 per pound or as contracts allow. This increase is driven by the continuing cost escalation of the raw materials going into these products.

See recent price adjustments at www.pcimag.com by clicking on Supplier Price Alerts.

Dow Corning Presenting at Coatings for Plastics Symposium
Dow Corning Corp., Midland, Mich., an innovative leader in fluorosilicone technology for coatings and other industries, is participating in the 10th Annual International Coatings for Plastics Symposium™ this June ... Full Details Here >>

e-Training on Coating Film Defects Set for May 15
SpecialChem expert Jochum Beetsma is conducting this advanced-level, two-part course for those who already have a good working knowledge of the physical-chemical basics, but who are looking for an application-focused refresher ... Full Details Here >>  

Conference on The Future of Smart Coatings
This smart coatings conference is being held in Baltimore on July 17-19. It will bring together the three most important prefixes in the coatings world: nano-, bio-, and smart- ... Full Details Here >>

Varian Hosts Free Seminars on Practical Uses of Infrared Spectroscopy
Learn about the latest developments in FT-IR sampling techniques, FT-IR microscopy and non-destructive depth profiling using photo-acoustic spectroscopy, and see the latest sampling techniques in FT-IR to simplify sample analysis during these free seminars in U.S. and Canadian cities ... Full Details Here >>