The 44th Annual Waterborne Symposium
of our big ideas. We have learned the hard way that reality is
more complicated.”
Eckersley noted that larger societal and market drivers influ-
ence both technology adoption and abandonment. She noted
that the viral consumer can drive change based on science or
pseudo-science and the evolving regulatory environment both
constrains and spurs creativity. Her presentation looked at tech-
nology adoption in the coatings industry historically and made
connections with larger market drivers. Analyzing this data can
help coatings suppliers and manufacturers anticipate what con-
sumers want them to build.
The plenary lecture was followed by keynote speaker, Jane
Valenta, vice president of technical, global architectural coat-
ings at PPG Industries, who presented “Innovation in Coatings
Applications: A Product Life Cycle Approach to Sustainability.”
“Thinking end-to-end is essential in managing the life
cycle sustainability of coating products,” said Valenta.
“Innovation in coating applications is as critical as innova-
tion in product performance.”
As sustainability becomes more and more important in the
coatings industry, there is an end-to-end life cycle approach to
product management. The end-to-end approach considers a
wider range of activities compared to conventional approach
and requires partnerships across the value chain for successful
innovation in products, applications and know-how.
“Partnerships across the value chain have enabled PPG to
provide products with reduced total environmental impact,” she
noted. “Today, as the application method becomes more complex and demanding, collaboration and innovation across the
value chain are essential to assess and improve the life cycle
sustainability of coating products. To provide products with reduced environmental impact, the focus has been on our own
manufacturing and logistics operations, but also on partnering
with applicators, equipment vendors and suppliers to innovate.”
Valenta noted the commercialization of Envirobase that
drove the conversion from solvent to water in the automotive
refinish market the commercialization of both B1:B2 Compact
Process and Enviro-Prime Epic that reduced energy and water
consumption for automotive applications, the introduction of
HOBA Pureair coating for the packaging industry, the introduction of Powercron Advantedge for the industrial coatings market and some ongoing innovation efforts to reduce the full life
cycle environmental impact of PPG’s products.
Expert Coatings Panel Discussion
Following the keynote speech, Dale Pritchett, publisher of
Coatings World, moderated a panel discussion. This year’s pan-
el was titled “Look Beyond the Surface: How Polymers Define
Inks, Coatings and Personal Care.”
“The Expert Panel discussion sponsored by Coatings World
at the 2017 Waterborne Symposium was a unique event,” said
Pritchett. “Three technical scientists were on the panel repre-
senting the ink market, the coatings market and the cosmetic
market. These three different industries are bound by the same
surface chemistry. The panels were Dr. Juanita M. Parris, global
director of R&D for Material and Analytical Science at Sun
Chemical Corporation; Dr. Rajeev Jain, chief manager, prod-
uct development at Asian Paints Limited and Dr. XianZhi (Joe)
Zhou a global applied research leader at L’Oreal. Attendees and
students in the audience were able to hear first-hand what chal-
lenges they face in their respective markets in bringing their cus-
tomers needs into commercial viable products.”
This year’s panel focused on the similarities of waterborne
technologies being utilized in the coatings, inks and personal care
sectors. Attendees had the opportunity to hear from experts in
these industries regarding the technology that is driving the market. Parris’ discussion was on polymer Innovation needs; Jain of
Asian Paints presented on coatings research outlook in today’s
environment” and Zhou’s presentation was an overview of the
chemistry L’Oreal utlizes to develop nail polish and the moved
to more water-based technologies. The panel concluded with an
interactive questions and answer session with the audience.
Sidney Lauren Memorial Lecture
The sixth annual Sidney Lauren Memorial Lecture was
presented by Yoan Simon of the University of Southern
Mississippi, who presented “Adding a Bit of Color and
Energy via Light Upconversion.”
Light upconversion (UC) by means of triplet‐triplet anni-
hilation (TTA) is an interesting photophysical process that is
promising for a whole host of applications ranging from solar
harvesting to imaging. While this phenomenon was discovered
over 50 years ago in solution, its development in solids is more
recent. TTA‐UC is predicated on the use of chromophore pairs
with finely tuned electronic levels. This contribution will give an
overview of our latest achievements in the field for the devel-
opment of polymeric materials facilitating efficient TTA‐UC. A
few systems will be discussed including rubbery and glassy poly-
mer blends, and copolymers with suitable chromophore pairs,
2018 Call For Papers
The School of Polymers and High Performance Materials at
The University of Southern Mississippi has issued a call for
papers for presentation at the 45th Annual International
Waterborne Symposium, February 4-8, 2018 in New
Orleans. Papers should relate to new and emerging technologies related to materials, processes, production, characterization, application and markets in the field of surface
coatings. All papers should be original and represent recent
advances in coatings science and related disciplines. Title,
abstract and author’s names (speaker’s name underlined)
should be submitted by mail, fax or e-mail no later than
Aug. 15 to School of Polymers and High Performance
Materials, The University of Southern Mississippi,Box
10063, Hattiesburg, MS 39406-0063; 601-266-4475; Fax:
601- 266-6265; E-mail: waterborne@usm.edu; Web: www.
psrc.usm.edu/waterborne.
