Neal Williams from AkzoNobel, UK provided in this keynote at the European Coatings CONGRESS a glimpse of what the future holds for the coatings industry - from a formulators perspective - in hispaper: "What´s smart, thin and green? Coatings of tomorrow".

There are numerous applications for textiles in everyday life. Textile coatings can give them manifold functionalities. "Textile Coatings" is also the title of a new European Coatings Conference, dedicated to novel materials and technologies for textile products.

Prof. Johann Plank, Technical University Munich in an interview about the current trends in construction chemicals. The products should be user friendly and easy to work with. Energy saving is also an important issue.

Gerhard Jonschker, Business develop manager AT-G Performance additives highlights in this interview a new core/shell nanotechnology and explains how this technology enhances the scratch resistance of high gloss coating systems.

Prof. Melik C. Demirel, Associate Professor of Engineering at Pennsylvania State University, USA, has done a lot of research on a template-free method of creating nanostructured polymers.

Detlev Gysau, Omya, Research & Technology Service for Paint, Coatings and Adhesives, is expert on calcium carbonate fillers. In this interview he highlights the use of nano-structured calciumcarbonate micro particles and explains which properties of paints and coatings can be improved by this technology.

Erik Graversen, Manager New Technologies Department, Hempel, stresses the importance of partnerships e.g. with suppliers and universities on the way to semi-radical innovations. It is equally essential to set up the right structures and to have a supportive top management. According to Graversen, a company can hardly be innovative without employees who feel a strong commitment to innovation across all functions.

Benchmarking is an important subject for European paint and coatings manufacturers. An essential aspect of this topic is a company’s innovation management. Dr. Rudolf Dömötör, Institute for Entrepreneurship and Innovation, University of Vienna, explains what characterizes an innovative company.

European Coatings CONFERENCES, 2008 Image Video