Applause for ECS 2003 - European-coatings.com

Quelle/Publication: European Coatings Journal 

Ausgabe/Issue: 05/2003 

Seite/Page: 20 

The world's largest coating raw materials show in 

Nuremberg had no sooner begun than it was all over. 

Despite the spread of the SARS virus, fears of terrorist 

attacks and the war in Iraq, the show once again proved a 

resounding success. The figures attest to the enduring 

attractiveness of the ECS - it was attended by more than 

16,000 visitors or roughly 8% more than were at the 2001 

show. About 50% came from outside Germany, from a total 

of 85 countries. Although visitor numbers from the USA, 

China and Japan were down, this was more than 

compensated by visitors from mainly Central and Eastern 

Europe. 

Breaking records again 

So, the ECS keeps growing and growing. Despite economic 

stagnation and the current geopolitical situation, there was 

an optimistic buzz in the overcrowded aisles. The stands, 

which ranged from the highly imaginative to the downright 

unusual, and the breadth of products on display proved that 

this industry is as dynamic and mobile as ever. Given the 

expansion that has occurred into Asian regions, it was not 

surprising that China was represented in much greater 

numbers than ever before. With nearly 30 exhibitors from 

the "Empire of the Centre", there were just as many Chinese 

exhibitors in Nuremberg as there were from the USA. There 

were more events, too, on the program than ever before. 

This meant that visitors to the show had to dash from one 

appointment to the next, as there were so many interesting 

partners to meet. And then, to cap it all at the end, they were 

faced with the ultimate question: where to put all the 

business cards? 

7th Nürnberg Congress: 

International diversity 

For the seventh time, the world of coatings convened in 

Nuremberg for the two-day Nürnberg Congress on April 7th 

and 8th to hear 70 scientists from companies, institutions 

and universities from around the world report on the latest 

developments and research in coatings. Some 380 

participants from 41 countries journeyed to this year's 

international platform for expert coatings information, and 

once again their aim was to pick up on new ideas, gain 

additional insights and, of course, to forge new contacts. 

The devil is in the detail 

The congress clearly showed that the major environmental 

goals seem to have been reached from a scientific viewpoint 

and that the erstwhile revolutionary technological 

innovations such as powder coatings, radiation-curing 

coatings and waterborne paints are de rigueur. Strategies 

now being pursued kick in far in advance of actual 

formulation, aimed at improving quality, lowering costs 

further, and making even greater use of technologies. 

Today, paint researchers want to know what happens at the 

molecular level of individual systems so that they can offer 

100-percent custom-made paint formulations in future. 

Detailed knowledge of film-forming processes, curing 

mechanisms and molecular structural relationships help 

paint formulators to create the desired functional coating 

systems effectively and in a controlled manner. 

Fantastic! - A trophy and prize money for the best 

Applause for ECS 2003 

The opening ceremony of the 7th Nuremberg Congress 

started off by launching immediately into the congress's 

highlight: an exclusively designed trophy and EUR 2000, 

donated by the European Coatings Journal, awarded in 

recognition of the best scientific paper out of a total of 70. In 

front of a large international audience, this year's winner, Dr. 

Oswald Prucker of the University of Freiburg, was presented 

with the European Coatings Award by Dr. Fred Buckmann, 

Avecia/Neoresins, prize-winner of the last Nuremberg 

Congress in 2001. 

Prucker presented two novel synthetic approaches that 

allow for the decoration of surfaces with functional groups in 

a chemically well-defined and durable fashion. 

In both cases thin coatings of functional polymers are 

deposited using well-known and controllable chemical 

processes that lead to polymer layers that are tailored in 

terms of their thickness, number and accessibility of 

functional units and chemical stability (e.g. number of 

crosslinks). Further important properties of the coatings 

such as wettability or swellability can also be adjusted 

without losing the degree of functionalization. 

One of the approaches uses a plasma polymer adhesion 

layer to provide reactive sites at the surface of the substrate, 

which allow the further coupling of molecules through known 

and well defined wet chemical processes. The other 

technique is based on the photolinking of molecules to the 

surfaces along with a simultaneous crosslinking of the 

polymer coating. 

What renders these two processes in the scientist´s opinion 

very interesting is the fact that they can be applied for 

almost all organic surfaces (and inorganic surfaces treated 

with an organic primer) ranging from biological interfaces to 

very hydrophobic polyolefins and beyond. 

Stick! 

Vincentz Network +++ Schiffgraben 43 +++ D-30175 Hannover +++ Tel.:+49(511)9910-000 

Congress allies 

From April 9th to 10th, some 111 experts came to Stick!, the 

European Raw Materials Congress for Adhesive and 

Sealants, which are close relatives of the coatings family. 

Simultaneous English and German interpreting were 

provided for the first time at lectures delivered by raw 

material suppliers and adhesive manufacturers from 17 

countries. 

In his welcoming address, Rudolf Hinterwaldner of 

Hinterwaldner Consulting & Partner GbR aptly formulated 

the significance of adhesives with a simple question: "What 

use are the most beautiful things on their own if they can't 

be connected to each other?" The figures back him up - the 

adhesives industry enjoys sales worth EUR 6 billion in 

Europe. 

For Hinterwaldner, the significance of a forum such as Stick! 

lay in the necessary exchange of information among experts 

with a view to developing more intelligent raw materials. 

Precisely such raw materials were the subject of the lecture 

by Dr. Stephan Sprenger of Hanse Chemie (Germany), who 

talked about nanocomposites in adhesives. He proved with 

his results that less is sometimes more and that just small 

additions of nanoparticles can bring about substantial 

improvements in products. 

4th European Congress on Construction Chemicals




Premiere with simultaneous translation 

During the one-day 4th Construction Chemicals Congress 

on April 10th, 12 select lectures dealt with current scientific 

and technical developments as well as topics of interest 

from within the sector. Simultaneous interpreting was 

provided for the first time and attracted a large contingent of 

delegates from foreign countries. 

Rainer Sobek, vice-president of German Bauchemie e.V., 

opened the congress in confident tones, drawing attention to 

the high importance of the construction chemicals, including 

its social dimension: "Important buildings throughout the 

world cannot be - and could not have been - built without the 

use of construction chemical products". But he also 

addressed the problems besetting the construction 

chemicals sector, especially in Germany: "The weakness in 

the German construction sector is now in its 5th year - we 

do not feel like celebrating". But it is precisely in difficult 

times that there is a great need to exchange information and 

knowledge - this too was revealed by the 4th Construction 

Chemicals Congress. 

2nd Ink Makers' Forum 

All about inks 

The printing inks market is currently going through hard 

times, but this is actually forcing a certain amount of 

differentiation on the ink manufacturers - the thing to do now 

is to stand out from the market not only in cost but also in 

technological leadership. During the ECS, the Ink Makers' 

Forum, 2nd European Congress on Printing Inks, provided 

an opportunity to hear about technical details from 

international experts on current innovations in the fields of 

binders, pigments and colorants, additives for printing ink 

formulations as well as on new production and testing 

technology. 

The 70 delegates from 14 countries heard 23 expert lectures 

- spread for the first time over two days - that reflected the 

full range of current developments in printing inks, and also 

discussed the current market and legislative situation. 

In the opening session, Martin Kanert (VDMi/CEPE), 

especially, caused a stir when he explained the impact that 

the planned EU chemicals policy - to the extent it is known - 

would have on the printing inks industry, and he then 

formulated CEPE's position on this. An important point of his 

deliberations: according to estimates, the costs of chemical 

registration as provided for under the REACH program 

would increase the cost of substances produced in 

quantities of less than 1 t/a by around 42% (this figure being 

commensurately lower for larger amounts): 10 t/a: 11%, 100 

t/a: 5%, 1000 t/a: 2%, 10,000 t/a: 0.4%). Of course, 

additives will be mostly affected by this. The probable 

consequence would be the disappearance of a large 

number of chemicals from the market. The German VCI 

estimates that this will be the case for 20 to 40% of 

substances produced in quantities ranging from 1 to 100 t/a. 

Some highlights from the technical sessions 

The migration of unreacted photoinitiators and their 

breakdown products from UV cured inks is of increasing 

concern in the food packaging industry. R. Stephen 

Davidson presented on behalf of Coates Lorilleux new 

multifunctional photoinitiators (MFPI's) that have been 

developed to reduce the amounts of extractable 

components in UV-cured coating. Because of their 

multifunctionality, the photoinitiators are firmly embedded 

within the binder during cure, while still keeping a good 

reactivity to achieve full cure of the system. 

The "dynamic fingerprint" of any ink formulation can be 

generated with a time-dependent differential maximum 

bubble pressure technique. As Victor P. Janule (ChemDyne) 

explained, this allows formulators to characterize the ink 

performance under all possible process conditions before 

the ink is used. This is especially important when multiple 

surfactants are present in the formulation. As the 

measurements show, the formulations that give the lowest 

surface tension may not be the best. 

Wim Peter Stout (Air Products) talked about how important it 

is to adjust and control surface tension in printing inks. 

Acetylenic diols are well known as high performing additives 

for the waterborne liquid inks, showing the technical 

advantages offered by Gemini surfactants. Stout presented 

a new generation of these additives, which offer even better 

performance benefits. 

Jörg Seubert (Eckart Werke) presented new aluminium 

metal pigments that can be produced as very thin platelets 

of highly uniform thickness by means of PVD (physical 

vapour deposition). These pigments exhibit pronounced 

non-leafing behaviour and the binder protects them very well 

in printing inks against mechanical and chemical influences. 

They are ideal for mirror-effect inks. They are not meant to 

compete against conventional metal effect printing inks, but 

rather to replace metallising layers, e.g. in packaging and 

labels. The advantage of these mirror-effect inks is that they 

can be applied precisely and exclusively to the areas where 

they are used in the decoration - this is not possible with 

metallisation. 

Masterbatch Day: Small but distinguished 

Some 28 international masterbatch manufacturers gathered 

at the ECS in a relaxed atmosphere for their first joint forum: 

Masterbatch Day. A series of five short lectures gave them 

an insight into pigments (white, carbon black and effect 

pigments), waxes and especially European legislation, 

which is of vital concern to them as masterbatch 

formulators. The various directives, guidelines and 

ordinances addressed were those on preparations, material 

safety data sheets, hazardous goods, toys, packaging and 

waste, and materials and articles intended for food contact. 

Substantial breaks during the day ensured there was plenty 

of time to get to know each other and to trade expertise. 

East & West: Connecting Europe 

Neighbours mingling 

Up until now a "mere" forum, the European coatings 

convention "East & West: Connecting Europe" was 

expanded this year to include a lecture series. The lectures 

delivered by the leading paint managers from Western, 

Central and Eastern Europe were received with great 

interest. An audience of 120 used the chance on April 9th to 

find out about the various national markets, to hear statistics 

and to catch up on local trends. Where else is there an 

opportunity to get firsthand basic data on, for example, the 

Estonian coatings market? As David O'Brock of Viru Keemia 

Grupp explained, some 14,400 metric tonnes of paints and 

surface coatings were produced there in 2001, with 36% of 

the market held by non-Estonian companies. The various 

speakers demonstrated the potential afforded by the various 

East European coatings markets with the aid of market 

analyses and surveys. The atmosphere remained intimate 

and informal throughout; contact between east and west 

smoothly transcended whatever linguistic borders there 

might have been. This coatings event has now developed 

into a valuable information and contact mart. Simultaneous 

interpreting was provided for the two Russian lectures. The 

remaining contributions were delivered in English. 

Workshop Production Technology 

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International dialogue 

The second-ever Workshop Production Technology had a 

very international flavour this year. 49 participants from 15 

countries made the journey to the NürnbergMesse 

conference center on April 9th. Non-German countries made 

up 65% of the total. Besides many audience members from 

Germany's neighbouring countries, some had also come 

from as far afield as India and Tanzania. To make the 

lecture series attractive to the widest circle of participants, 

the organizers had devised a program that more or less 

dispensed with specialist topics. 

Dr. Olaf Eichstaedt, an excellent and engaging moderator, 

guided the participants through the day, which was often 

characterized by intense discussions. The first of these 

came during general questions on the opening lecture by 

John E. Dunstone of Orr & Boss management consultancy 

on issues of the design of paints and coating shops. One of 

his core premises was indisputable, namely that simplicity is 

generally the key to success. The remaining lectures 

covered different aspects of production technology in detail 

and illustrated the possibilities and limitations of both new 

and developed processes. Two successive lectures on 

quintessentially different inline technologies, for example, 

made for interesting comparison. And then, right at the end, 

the excitement level rose reached a new pitch with the 

presentation of a method, fresh out of the development 

stage, for manufacturing printing inks. The method provides 

for production on extruders, which make continuous 

production theoretically possible and therefore have an 

advantage over conventional equipment, particularly where 

mass production is concerned. 

Purchasers' Day 

A multifaceted premiere 

It has long been possible to buy a lot for a little at 

supermarket discounters. Indeed, such supermarkets base 

their company policy on staying cheap. But quality is now 

almost just as high on the list of requirements that the 

products must meet. 

This example from everyday life reflects a trend which has 

increasingly shaped developments in coating raw materials 

purchasing in recent years. But, just as you can't simply pick 

any old product off the shelf of discount supermarkets in the 

hope of getting value for money, so too purchasers in the 

coatings industry mustn't rely on a simple fax order when the 

stores start running low on a raw material. Successful 

purchasing of coating raw materials is now a multi-faceted 

affair and it is vital to know the specific ins and outs and 

mechanisms of the various raw material markets and the 

possibilities afforded by modern purchasing. 

It was precisely to give trading persons in the industry an 

opportunity to widen their knowledge base in this regard that 

Purchasers' Day was created for this year's European 

Coatings Show. The advantage to the roughly 40 

participants from the German-speaking paints and coatings 

industry and its suppliers was that the event was tailored 

specifically to their needs. 

The conference opened with a summary of the rapid 

transformation in the professional life of a coating raw 

materials purchaser, who today is more of a relationship 

manager than a simple merchant. This was followed in quick 

succession by the other lectures, some of them more 

general in nature, such as the report on what electronic 

purchasing has to offer and a paper that illustrated market 

mechanisms and their influence on the response times of 

prices. Some of the lectures also examined the normal 

working day of a purchaser in very great depth. One of the 


highlights was the report by Ernst-Eberhard Klink of the 

eponymous solvent trading company in Stuttgart. Klink 

made it clear that the prices for solvents depend on a wide 

variety of factors, not just on the obvious ones, such as the 

price of crude oil. He conducted an invaluable exercise in 

trying to predict the future. 

Winfried Bergmann, managing director of Intrela GmbH in 

Alzenau, wound up the lectures by showing that 

collaboration is a proven way of not merely creating better 

conditions for increasing competitiveness, but doing so 

especially during purchasing. 

International audience: All roads lead to Nuremberg 

"I'm impressed - there's so much to see here. Everything 

you expect to be here is here - and a little more besides. 

What I found really good and useful was the testing part of 

the show, which is interesting to everyone. I'll definitely 

come back to the ECS!" 

Stefan Hjort, Ph.D. Surface Engineering, Swedish Institute 

of Production Engineering Research, Sweden. 

"The show is very well organised, and that's especially 

important for people who only come for one day. It's very 

useful for informal meetings within your own company and 

outside it. And it's very interesting to see all the products 

together in the same place." 

Kenneth Ahlm, Sales Manager Powder Coatings, Rohm and 

Haas Nordiska AB Powder Coatings, Sweden. 

"We want to expand and are looking for new and better 

products. We have come here because we are interested 

primarily in European companies. We're on the lookout for 

European franchise partners as well. We had a large 

number of promising discussions and now we'll see what 

comes of them." 

Deviyani D. Ved, Director Gamma Coatings Pvt. Ltd., and 

Manju K. Chandak, India. 

"I am at the ECS for the first time and I like it a lot. Ties with 

Western Europe are really important for the Russian 

coatings industry and that's why I've come to Nuremberg." 

Professor Dr. Kaschnikov, JSC Spektr. LK, Russia. 

Exhibitors from all around the world: 3 out of 646 

"This is where the whole industry gets together. But many 

users who come to the ECS and who show a lot of interest 

still have too many inhibitions. They should venture onto the 

stands more often to seek out their contacts." 

Günther Heiling, Marketing Waxes, Technical Service, 

Clariant GmbH Division Pigments & Additives BU Additive, 

Germany. 

"Even in quite specialist niche areas, where we expected 

hardly any visitors, there were excellent technical 

discussions in progress." 

Peter Zehntner, owner and managing director of Zehntner 

Testing Instruments, Switzerland. 

"The European coatings market is very active and offers 

great demand potential. It was therefore important for us to 

be represented here." 

Li Bin, Vice Manager of Foreign Trade Department of 

Zhejiang Tiansong New Materials Co. Ltd., Hangzhou, 

China.





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