The Eastern Coatings Show was held April 29th-May 2nd in Atlantic City, NJ at the Trump Taj Mahal. According to show organizers, the ECS was successful and exceeded all expectations. The show was hosted by the Metropolitan New York Coatings Association, the Philadelphia Society for Coatings Technology and the New England Society for Coatings Technology and received tremendous praise.

According to Dave White, lab manager, Heucotech Ltd., who is part of the planning committee, the show turned out better than anyone imagined it would, with the lectures being especially successful.

“There’s been a great interaction with the question and answer sessions, so the participation has been really good,” White said.
Rick Mazzariello, Enrichem Specialties, who is also the chairman of the planning committee, said that the incredible response to the show was surprising to everyone.

“Being that this was the first show ever that we put together, we were certainly surprised at the great response we had to the show, not only the response in terms of the amount of people, but also the enthusiasm of the people once they were here in terms of the quality of the technical talks, the activity in the trade show hall, and all the amenities we put together,” Mazzariello explained.
Mazzariello also added that the collaboration to put the event together made all of it possible.

“The ECS was truly a collaborative effort of the MNYCA, the NESCT and the PSCT.  Enthusiasm for this event was very high and hence, attendance levels were much greater than expected.  We have received positive feedback from many attendees, speakers and exhibitors and we are planning our next show in 2015 to be even bigger and better,” he said.
A spokesperson for Fody Associates, the group responsible for staffing and planning the event, said that the number of people for advanced registration and walk up registration is almost double what was anticipated for the event, with the total number surpassing 600.

More than 42 presenters featured talks at the ECS include topics such as Anti-Corrosives and Protective Coatings, Binders, Functional Fillers, Additives, Colorants, Surfactants, Functional Additives, Optimized Hiding, Tio2 Replacement, Waterborne Coatings, Nano Materials, Marketing, Rheology, Novel Materials and Formulation.
Terri Shefelbine of 3M, presented her lecture on “Performance Study of Ceramic Microspheres in a Water-based Acrylic Flat Architectural Paint.”

“These materials have a very unique set of properties for the paint and coatings department. They are made of alkaline aluminum silicate ceramic, and they are spherically shaped. Some of the properties are important to the architectural market, some aren’t,” Shefelbine explained.

Shefelbine also sought to reinforce that 3M, from a laboratory perspective and business perspective, is committed to the paint market.

“We want to ‘speak paint’, and we want our customers to understand what we do, and we also want to understand what our customer’s problems are,” Shefelbine said.

Maria Nargiello, Evonik, featured her lecture on “Nano-Structured Particles to Enhance Primer Performance Properties.”
Nargeillo explained her presentation focused on water-based primers, and that there was a focus of time and effort in solvent-based systems, with a lot of data already published on solvent based systems. 

“When we look at primers today, we’re going to talk about particle modification review. One thing about all of these types of particle-based products is they’re highly adaptable, and we’re going to talk about why and how we modify them and some of the flavors they come in,” Nargiello said.

“We did some details on the formulations and then we look at functionality in the testing. When it comes to rheology, basic pigment suspension as well as settling, certainly anti corrosion and water repellency are functionalities that we will look and then mechanical reinforcement,” she added.

Dave White of Heucotech gave a lecture on “Zero VOC Colorants – A to Z High Hiding, High Performance, High Strength, IR Reflective.”

White explained that in terms of the future, there are a lot of high performance pigments on the market, and the consumer is always looking for more.

“So, where are colorants headed? The consumer is demanding more and more from the colorants companies and paint companies, there are a lot of high performance pigments out there; we concentrated on the reds and yellows in particular,” he said.
White also explained that there were certain benefits to these high performance colors. 

“Generally what you’re looking at on your high performances, if you’re doing a new color system, or if you have an extra four canisters, you throw the four canisters of the high performance in, and then you can get a nice blend,”White said. “You don’t need to use the red 254; the interior paints aren’t as sufficient, but if you’re going outdoors you want that security you want to be able to go home and sleep at night when you’re selling that paint to the contractor who is painting a 40 story building, knowing he won’t have to paint it again for five or ten years.”

Brij Mohal, Chromaflo Technologies Corp., presented on “New Developments in Color Space for Architectural and Industrial Coatings.”

Mohal discussed color space analysis, façade applications, architectural applications, industrial applications, and colorant module customization.

While discussing architectural applications, Mohal explained that the high performance and high strength colorants allow more vivid reproduction of existing colors in nature.

Jessica Almos, Halox, gave her lecture on “High Performance Organic and Inorganic Zinc-Free Corrosion Inhibitors.” Almos explained that along with the increase of awareness of the heavy metal impact on humans and the environment has come more stringent regulations prohibiting the use of heavy metals.

“As all of us know some of the heavy metals like chromium and lead, which are very good corrosion inhibitors, are very high risk to us, especially in the respiratory track, and also high risk to the environment,” she said. 

Almos also explained corrosion is an electrochemical process that can’t be stopped, but can be slowed down with the use of corrosion inhibitors.

“Organics have a lot of properties that work very well in thin films, and have a lot of properties that will help with adhesion. Some of the inorganic pigments, we use a lot in our formulations, they’re going to give long term corrosion depending on the water solubility of the pigment you’re using,” she added.

In addition to the papers and lectures featured at the Eastern Coatings Show, there was a gala dinner held on Wednesday May 1st that drew more than 150 visitors and featured keynote speaker, Peter Molinaro, vice president, North America Government Affairs, Dow Chemical Company. Molinaro presented the keynote speech on the topic of current challenges and opportunities in the Coatings industry.

The ECS committee consisted of: Sheila Belding (Troy Corp.) Loyd Burcham (Stonhard); Dan Canavan III ( D.B. Becker Co., Inc.; president, Philadelphia Society for Coatings Technology); Shaun Julian ( E.W. Kaufmann Co.); Bill Nichols (D. B. Becker Co., Inc.; New England Society for Coatings Technology); Dale Pritchett (Rodman Media); Chuck Shearer (DSM); Dave White (Heucotech, Ltd.; MNYCA president); and Bob Whiteley (JNS-SmithChem, LLC).  Dave White chaired the sub-committee that called for, received and selected the papers that were presented. 

The next Eastern Coatings Show is scheduled for May 2015.

About the MNYCA, PSCT and the NESCT
The Metropolitan New York Coatings Association serves coatings and allied industries in the New York Metropolitan area. Their website is www.mnyca.org.
The Philadelphia Society of Coatings Technology serves the coatings and allied industries in the metropolitan Philadelphia area. Their website is www.psct.org.
The New England Society of Coatings Technology serves the coatings industry in the New England states. Their website is www.nesct.org.