The Fifth International Coatings for Plastics Symposium and Exhibition took place in Troy, MI, on May 20-22. With over 100 attendees and 16 exhibitors, the symposium was again an astounding success. Attendees were able to attend all of the 20 invited speaker technical presentations, network and socialize at the receptions on Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday nights, as well as elect to attend a tour of the DuPont Automotive Showroom and application center in Troy, MI, on Wednesday afternoon, at the close of the conference.

The technical sessions included plenary addresses by Gail Pollano, president of the Federation of Societies for Coatings Technology (FSCT) and marketing manager at Neoresins, speaking on The History of Resin Design for Plastic Substrates, and Dr. David E. Cole of The Center for Automotive Research, speaking on Auto 2002: Survival of the Fittest. A luncheon talk by Dr. Rose A. Ryntz of Visteon Corp. addressed the changes in requirements in attaining automotive approvals in her talk Achieving Paint Approval on Automotive Plastics.

Included in the technical sessions were topics that addressed adhesion, formulation, environmental standards of coatings, and surface damage resistance, e.g., scratch/mar and weathering durability. Industry experts included Dr. Phil Yaneff of DuPont Performance Coatings addressing the Coatings for Plastics: Performance and Durability Testing, Kim Scarlet of DaimlerChrysler Corp. speaking on the Overview of Automotive Plastic Coatings, Dr. Jonathan Martin of the National Institute of Standards (Advances in Predicting the Service Life of Coating Systems), Dr. Mark Nichols of the Ford Motor Co. (Long Term Weatherability of UV Curable Clearcoats), and Kevin Joesel of Fusion UV Systems (addressing the Aspects of UV Curing Technology for Coatings for Plastics). Topics presented on Plastic's Role in Automotive Interiors (Tom Traugott of Dow Automotive) and High Throughput Screening of Coatings (Dr. Hermann Bach of Bayer Corp.) solicited much discussion among the attendees, which carried over into the breaks and receptions/exhibition.

The high level of interactions occurring at breaks and the intensity present during the technical presentations speaks of the great interest and need for technical interactions in this ever-changing, multidisciplinary field. Attendees commented positively on the level of breadth and the high level of technical content achieved this year in the speaker selection and topics presented.

New this year to the symposium was a Sunday evening wine and cheese reception at the American Plastics Council (APC)'s Automotive Learning Center located in Troy, MI. Several displays highlighting the use of plastics in automotive applications were exhibited and Bruce Cundiff delivered a brief history of the APC.

Continued again this year was the Coatings for Plastics Best Paper Award. The paper that won the competition was ESR Imaging of Polymer Degradation and Stabilization, presented by Dr. Shulamith Schlick of The University of Detroit-Mercy. The award recognizes technical excellence and content in written papers submitted to the symposium. c

The Fifth International Coatings for Plastics Symposium and Exhibition, organized by Technical Conference Management, sponsored by PCI and endorsed by the NPCA, will be held again next year at a date and time to be announced in 2003. Please visit the PCI website at www.pcimag.com for further details.