The Eighth International Coatings for Plastics Symposium and Exhibition was held in Troy, Mich., at the Michigan State Management Education Center on June 6-8, 2005. With 21 technical papers presented, the symposium focused on leading-edge issues in the coatings for plastics arena. Over 100 people attended the 20-invited-speaker technical presentations, networked and socialized at the reception held on Sunday night and the exhibition on Tuesday afternoon.

The technical sessions included a Monday morning Keynote address by Rodger Pelo of PPG Industries, speaking on Leading the Way in China, and a plenary presentation Tuesday morning by Drs. Rose A. Ryntz of Visteon and Phil Yaneff of E.I. DuPont Canada, speaking on Understanding the Mechanical Behavior of Automotive Coatings on Plastics in Relation to Scratch. A Monday luncheon talk by Matthew Roman of Visteon addressed Preferred Materials Usage: Environmental Legislation and Product Design.

Included in the technical sessions were topics that addressed adhesion, formulation, environmental standards of coatings and surface damage resistance, e.g., scratch/mar and chemical durability. A sampling of the industry experts presenting papers included Drs. Li-Piin Sung and Peter Drzal of NIST speaking on Surface Characterization and Scratch Resistance Assessment of Polymeric Coatings and Plastics by Optical Scattering and Instrumented Indentation and the Nanomechanical Properties of Polymeric Coatings, respectively. Dr. Vincent Jardret of Tribometrix addressed the Rheological Approach to Scratch Resistance, Ken-ichi Fujino of Nippon Paper Chemicals spoke on Waterborne Chlorine-Free Adhesion Promoter for TPO: Effect of Crystallinity on Adhesion and Gasoline-Resistance Performance Properties, Russell Brynolf of FTS Technologies (Accelerated Thermo-Molecular Adhesion Process (AtmaP) - A Highly Advanced Surface Treatment Technology), Tim December of BASF (The Effect of Bake Time and Temperature on Adhesion to Select TPO Substrates), and Brandon Willis of Red Spot Paint and Varnish (addressing Benchmarking of a Groundbreaking Adhesion Promoter Technology for PP and TPO). Dr. Larry Drzal of Michigan State University was presented the Best Paper Award for his presentation entitled Surface Treatment of Plastics with UV Light in Air to Improve Adhesion - An Economical and Environmentally Benign Process.

Other interesting sessions discussed the Accelerated Weathering of Hardcoated Polycarbonate (Dr. James Pickett, GE Global Research), Diffusion of Ultraviolet Light Absorbers in Coating Systems: Modeling and Experimental Investigations (Dr. Mark Nichols, Ford Motor Company), Effect of Surface Tension on Interior Paint Adhesion (Jim Keller, United Paint), and High-Solids Radiation-Curable Basecoat and Clearcoat for Flexible Plastic Automotive Components (Red Spot Paint and Varnish).

Continuing this year was a Sunday evening wine and cheese reception at the Troy Northfield Hilton (adjacent to the Michigan State Management Education Center), which allowed attendees to network prior to the formal start of the symposium.

The Eighth International Coatings for Plastics Symposium and Exhibition, organized by Technical Conference Management, sponsored by Paint & Coatings Industry (PCI) magazine, also hosted an exhibition of 23 companies displaying their wares for the plastics industry on Tuesday evening. The organizing committee would like to extend special thanks to the industrial sponsors for this year's event, which included Arkema, Eastman, DKSH North America, DSM Neoresins, Fusion UV Systems, Inc., Sci-Lab Materials Testing Inc., Phibrochem and Dow.

The papers that were presented at the Coatings for Plastics Symposium are available on a CD. Please click here for more information. For further details on the 2006 conference to be held at the same location June 5-7, visit the PCI Web site, www.pcimag.com.