Fifth International Coatings for Plastics Symposium Review
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.