European Coatings Show 2023 celebrates successful comeback
The world of paints and coatings met again at the European Coatings Show and Conference 2023 in March. After the Corona interruption, numerous exhibitors and visitors were again drawn to the major industry event in Nuremberg, including many well-known companies from the surface technology sector.
From March 28 to 30, 24,605 coatings experts gathered information on the latest trends in the world of paints and coatings from 1,017 exhibitors from 42 countries at the European Coatings Show 2023 (ECS). The top-class conference already started on March 27 and was exceptionally well attended. The response of the 730 participants was positive throughout. Eight exhibition halls offered trade visitors to the paint and coatings world all the global industry trends and innovations on the topics of coatings, printing inks, laboratory, production, testing or measuring technology, adhesives or construction chemical materials. The focus was on sustainability, nanotechnology or green coatings - here formulators, process engineers, quality managers and buyers found all the innovations of the entire coatings market. Many well-known companies from the surface technology industry were also present in Nuremberg, such as a long list of well-known manufacturers of coating thickness and analysis equipment in Hall 4, including Coatmaster, DataPhysics, DeFelsko, Dr. Nix, Elcometer, Krüss, OptiSense. Polytec, and Sita. Also represented were specialty chemical manufacturers and producers of additives and color pigments such as Wacker, Evonik, Hubergroup, BYK, and the Altana Group. In addition, there were institutions such as Fraunhofer IFAM and DFO or coating specialists such as IST Metz, Dr. Hönle and Sata.
Despite a nationwide warning strike in public transport on Monday, 730 participants came to take part in the top-class program of the two-day European Coatings Show Conference. It started already on March 27 and created a lot of space for knowledge transfer for developers and engineers in 143 presentations. Top speakers from over 40 countries offered interesting insights into a wide range of topics. Wijnand Bruinsma, Akzo Nobel, kicked things off with his keynote address on "The role of paints and coatings in a sustainable future." The highlight of the conference was the presentation of the coveted European Coatings Show Award. This year, Dr. Hong Xu and her co-authors Joseph Mauck (Cardolite USA) and James Zhao (Cardolite China) received the prestigious award for their paper "Pursue greener - novel sustainable CNSL-based diluent designed for high-performance low-VOC protective coatings." The next European Coatings Show Conference will take place on March 24 and 25, 2025.