European Coatings Show 2019: Focus on Sustainability
The European Coatings Show has once again proven its importance as a leading European platform for the coatings industry. From low odour, water-borne or bio-based coatings, sustainability was the number one trend.
The internationality of the trade visitors is also at its highest level. “Every other year, the coatings community from all around the world comes to Nuremberg! This time around, the visitors hailed from around 125 countries – the number is up once again on previous years,” said Alexander Mattausch, exhibition director at Nürnberg Messe. The figures emphasize the global significance of the event: coatings experts from six continents came specifically to Nuremberg to swap ideas on trends and innovations.
Trend towards sustainability
If you asked exhibitors to identify what is trending in the coatings industry, you received a clear answer: sustainability. So much so that many companies planned their ECS appearance around it. True, this was apparent at the ECS 2017, but the focus on sustainable solutions appeared to be even stronger this time around. As Geert Hofman, general manager Performance Additives at Nouryon, said: “For the coatings industry as a whole, I see a generic global trend towards low-VOC, low-odour products with cheaper raw materials that deliver the same or even an improved performance.”
Dr Sascha Oestreich, head of regional technical marketing formulation additives at BASF, also saw a clear global trend towards water-borne formulations, and that this was especially evident in China. Sustainable solutions, reduced solvent content, and biocides are further hot topics in his view.
Sustainable solutions are also being sought in production technology, as companies try to cut down on waste and packaging, and to use more eco-friendly cleaning agents etc. This became evident in the halls where manufacturing technology was presented. Next to sustainability, it is automation which is preoccupying the industry. Production machine-maker VMA Getzmann is seeing that customers want to improve their versatility by producing smaller batches.”
European Coatings Show conference
Attendees looking for The new trend in coatings formulation were in for a “disappointment”: also this year’s European Coatings Show Conference proved once again that water-borne technology and sustainable solutions remain in the focus of the coatings industry. However, it’s no secret that the focus in coatings labs was and is on improving efficiency and quality during the transition from solvent- to water-borne systems, on further reducing the VOC content in organic coatings and on dealing with harmful substances and their regulations – all of them topics which found plenty of space on the conference programme.
A well-balanced blend of about 140 presentations from industry and academia attracted a pleasing number of roughly 780 attendees to the industry’s foremost coatings conference that ended yesterday. Among the crowds flocking to the 24 sessions, which were organised on the basis of coatings applications and types of raw materials, there were professionals from 55 countries.
European Coatings Show Award
The winner of the European Coatings Show Award for the best lecture at the European Coatings Show Conference 2019 was Dr. Christopher Miller from Arkema. The title of his work was “Developing a Deeper Understanding of the Effect of Latex Design Parameters on Final Coating Film Properties”.
Kirsten Wrede
Event tips
If you are interested to achieve more knowledge of sustainable coatings solution you should have a look at our seminars about water-borne coatings and powder coatings. Both seminars will give you the necessary basic knowledge to start working on their respective topic.
For the newest developments in bio-based coatings you should mark October 22-23 in your calander. The second EC Technology Forum | Bio-based coatings will educate you and other international experts on cutting edge news about this fascinating topic.
