Known the world over for its jazz Cajun cuisine, and Mardi Gras celebrations, New Orleans can add another tradition to its “must experience” list. Each year, the city welcomes coatings professionals to the International Waterborne, High-Solids and Powder Coatings Symposium. Sponsored by the School of Polymers and High Performance Materials at The University of Southern Mississippi (USM), this year’s symposium took place from February 19–24 at the New Orleans Marriott.
The symposium drew 382 attendees, who had opportunities to experience pre-symposium short courses, three days of technical presentations, student posters and a sold-out Technology Showcase.
Sarah Eckersley
The symposium’s Opening Session began with a plenary lecture by Sarah Eckersley, global director of R&D and TS&D for Coatings, Monomers & Plastics Additives at The Dow Chemical Company, who challenged the audience with her talk—“If We Build It, WILL They Come?” The title was a fitting reference for an insightful discussion on the intersection of marketing and technology.
According to Eckersley, technical professionals may operate under the assumption that technological advantage drives technology adoption. However, experience has shown that marketplace acceptance is not always guaranteed. For success to occur, there needs to be a corresponding response in the marketplace. She advised attendees to pay attention to trends since larger societal and market drivers can influence the adoption, or even possible abandonment, of technology breakthroughs.
A critical trend—sustainability—was the focus of the next presentation. Jane Valenta, vice president of Technical, Global Architectural Coatings
Jane Valenta
for PPG, gave the keynote address, “Innovation in Coatings Applications: A Product Life Cycle Approach to Sustainability.” According to Valenta, as sustainability becomes more important, there is a need to move to an end-to-end life cycle approach to product management. This approach takes into account a wider range of activities than more conventional approaches, and requires partnerships across the value chain for successful innovation. Such considerations include collaboration between manufacturers, raw material suppliers, equipment vendors, applicators, as well as end users.
Valenta detailed some technologies that PPG has commercialized to reduce the full life cycle environmental impact of products, including Envirobase, which drove the conversion from solvent to water in the automotive refinish market, and both B1:B2 Compact Process and Enviro-Prime Epic, which reduced energy and water consumption for automotive applications.
An annual highlight of the symposium is the presentation of the Sidney Lauren Memorial Lecture. Yoan Simon, of USM, spoke on “Adding a Bit of Color and Energy via Light Upconversion.” Simon noted that light upconversion by means of triplet-triplet annihilation is an interesting photophysical process that has promise for a wide range of applications.
Following the program, awards recognized the best papers and posters given, including:
Presentation of Siltech Award for Innovation.
Siltech Award for Innovation: Donald Campbell, BASF, for “Thermal Yellowing and Photo-Bleaching of Automotive Topcoats”
Presentation of PCI’s Award for Technical Excellence.
PCI Award for Technical Excellence: Juliane Pereira Santos, Oxiteno, for “Atomic Force Microscopy Study: Effect of Low-VOC Coalescents on Morphology and Phase Distribution of Latex Films.”
Eastman Student Poster Award winners.
Eastman Undergraduate Student Poster Awards: William Blake Martin, Patton Research Group; Kaden Stevens, Lott Research Group; and Sarah Swilley, Patton Research Group
Eastman Graduate Student Poster Awards: Vivek Vasagar, Nazarenko Research Group; and Beibei Chem, Nazarenko Research Group.
Plans are already under way for the 45th Annual International Waterborne Symposium to be held February 4–8, 2018 at the Astor Crown Plaza, New Orleans, LA.