Report on the 12th Advances in Coatings Technology - ACT'16 conference, which took place in Expo Silesia Exhibition Centre in Sosnowiec, Poland, on 8-10 November 2016

The ACT Conference is now an established event within the Polish coatings sector,focusing on the latest topics and developments concerning paint technology. The Conference isdesigned to intensify the dialogue among Central, East – and West – European paint specialiststhat was initiated during ACT conference in 1995 and has continued every two years. As well as presenting the latest technical innovations and trends, the Conference promotesbusiness contacts among participants mostly from Europe. The coatings industry in Central andEastern Europe offers a significant opportunity for the suppliers of raw materials, newtechnologies, machines and equipment. Poland is well situated as a bridge between Eastern and Western Europe and its positionaids co-operation and the successful development of the paint industry to the benefit ofeveryone. The congress organised by Paint & Plastics Department of the Institute for Engineering ofPolymer Materials and Dyes (Poland) has become the premier technical event in the coatingindustry in Poland, attracting academia, suppliers and coating formulators for three days ofpresentations and discussions. More than 150 delegates (45 % from abroad) from 19 countries (Austria, Belgium, CzechRepublic, Cyprus, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, Poland, Russia,Serbia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Ukraine, the UK and the USA) took part in the Conference.The number of institutions registered for the Conference was 107 and 55 % of this number wasfrom outside Poland. Eighty three % of the total number of institutions represented industrialsector and 14 % came from academia and R&D establishments. Specialists from leading foreign companies such as: Akzo Nobel, ALLNEX, ARKEMA, ASK Chemicals Deutschland, BASF Coatings and BASF Colors & Effects, BYK-Chemie, CH-Polymers OY, Chromaflo Technologies Europe, Clariant, Covestro (former BAYER MaterialScience), DOW Belgium, Evonik Resource Efficiency, Glassflake Ltd, Hosokawa Alpine, Keyser & Mackay, King Industries, Krahn Chemie, LKAB Minerals, MERCK, Mondo Minerals, Omya International, Quarzwerke, Sartomer Europe, Schlenk Metallic Pigments, Shepherd Color International, ThermoShield, X-Rite Europe as well as representatives of foreign research and development institutions such as: All Russian Research Institute of Use of Machinery and Olil Products (Russia), Bundesanstalt für Materialforschung und-prüfung - BAM(Germany), Derzhavin State Iniversity (Russia), Fraunhofer Institute for Manufacturing Engineering and Automation - IPA (Germany), Fraunhofer Institute for Applied Polymer Research - IAP (Germany), iLF Forschungs-und Entwicklungsgesellschaft Lacke und Farben (Germany), Niederrhein University of Apllied Sciences (Germany), Plastics Technology Centre- AIMPLAS (Spain), National University "Lvivska Politechnika" (Ukraine), Powder Coating Research Group (USA), PROCOAT (Włochy), University of Leeds and Austin Hayes (UK), University of Basque Country (Spain), YarLI - Paint Institute (Russia) took part in the conference. Delegates from important Polish enterprises involved in the paint sector included: ARSANIT Sp z o o, ATEST Sp z o o, ATLAS Sp z o o, Becker Farby Przemyslowe Sp z o o, CIECH R & D Sp z o o, CIECH Sarzyna Sp z o o, D & R Dispersions and Resins Sp z o o, ELTREX Sp z o o, EPOXYPOL Sp z o o, Farby KABE Sp z o o, Fabryka Farb i Lakierow SNIEZKA SA, ICHEMAD - Profarb Sp z o o, KiZPPS OSIECZNICA Sp z o o, MERANCO Spz o o, nLab Sp z o o, NOVOL Sp z o o, PCC EXOL SA, PCC ROKITA SA, PPG Deco Polska Sp z o o, PTH EUROTOM Sp z o o, ROWIS SYSTEM Sp Jawna, Spectro-Lab Jan Borkowski, SYNTHOS SA, Univar Poland Sp z o o, WIWAX Sp z o o. Polish R&D institutions and academia were represented by: ITS Science, Rzeszow University of Technology, Poznan

University of Life Science, Silesian University, Institute for Engineering of Polymer Materials and Dyes. Sixty presentations and 12 posters focused on developments and experimentation in anumber of raw materials evolutions for coatings (polymers, resins and binders, novel pigmentsand tinting systems, extenders, new generation of additives, agents and modifiers), advancedtechnologies involving their environmental aspects (waterborne, powder, nanotechnologies,functional coatings, antifouling and rad-cured coatings), applications (anticorrosive,architectural, automotive and wood coatings), machines and equipment used for coatings,testing and measurements. There was a good balance of information coming from both industrial and academicsources with 19 papers from R&D establishments ( three of them were published together withindustry) and the rest of papers came from the industry. The conference was a valuable contribution to new developments and processes, both inthe coatings industry and the numerous sections of industry involved with raw materials. The conference was conducted in English with simultaneous translation into Polish.There were interesting discussions between speakers and delegates after most presentations. Advances in Coatings Technology conference offered a unique opportunity, in Poland, tofind out the current position of international research and to discuss and exchange technicalinformation with colleagues from this sector.

Conference Hall

Promotion desks in front of the Conference Hall

Dr Krzysztof Bortel - Head of the Institute IMPiB (Poland) is opening the Conference

Dr Anna Slusarczyk from Institute IMPiB (Poland) is presenting a lecture on air drying, decorative paints based on biopolymer

Dr Frank J. Maile from Schlenk Metallic Pigments GmbH (Germany) is giving a lecture on newpolychromatic effect pigments

Mark M. Ryan Jr. from The Shepeherd Color Co. (USA) is having a presentation on ultra-high performance inorganic Infrared Reflective pigments

Dawn Skinner form Heraeus Noblelight Ltd, UK is chairing the 5th session of the conference

Anna Pajak- Chair of the Organising Committee is having a welcome speach at the conference