European Coatings Conference held.

The 2004 European Coatings Conference, organized by Vincentz Network, will take place June 7-8 in Berlin, Germany.

Both industrial and academic materials science is said to keep coming up with highly interesting developments, which have led to or may lead to intelligent industrial coating systems with truly novel functions, going beyond classical protection and decoration purposes. This is the topic of the European Coatings Conference, "Smart Coatings."

Sixteen invited conference contributions by international experts, again representing a mixture of academic research institutes, start-up companies and established industrial players, will present new materials, systems and ideas which may enable novel functionalities in established coatings systems, or open up the way to entirely new coatings applications.

Furthermore, the European Coatings Conferences are said to be shaped in an interactive way, giving the delegates the opportunity to form the conference in accordance with their own needs and expectations.

The conference will be divided into five sessions, including stimulus and response, smart layers, smart colors, novel applications and self-repair concepts.

In addition to exploring nanotechnology, participants will be informed on conductive polymers, shape memory polymers, and more.

Further information on the 2004 European Coatings Conference is available from Amanda Beyer of Vincentz Network, tel.: [phone]; fax: [phone].