NanoKTN Continues Partnership with BCF and PRA for Second Annual NanoCoatings Conference

Nanomaterials are now having a major commercial impact on the coatings industry and the NanoKTN is working with BCF and PRA to build a UK community where industries can discuss the benefits, as well as the challenges, faced by the market. Nano-enhanced materials are rapidly emerging worldwide in every industry imaginable, with the key areas of paints and coatings leading the way in delivering commercial applications.

The conference aims to provide manufacturers with a better understanding of the potential and use of nanotechnology and to address concerns about handing and processing of these materials, health and safety issues and possible future legislation. They keynote address will be given by Prof Ivan Parkin, Head of Department of Chemistry at UCL. Further presentations will be delivered from key industry professionals including P2i, 4D Dynamics, PPG Industries, Polyfect Solutions Ltd, Kronos, Bayer Technology Services GmbH, the Health & Safety Laboratory (HSL), Buhler, Oxford Advanced Surfaces, TWI and Datum Developments.

Dave Collins from Buhler will look at the nano milling of dispersions with bead mills, already successfully employed in a number of commercial and development applications. Beads with diameters as small as 20 microns present the opportunity for effective nano milling of dispersions, but these beads also present the technical challenge of bead mill designs capable of utilising such sizes effectively. The presentation will explore what can be achieved by bead milling with Micro Beads and the technical features required of a bead mill in order to effectively operate with Micro Beads.
Dr Alan Taylor, Consultant and Technology Manager at TWI will look at a new, cost-effective process for the manufacture of complex, tailorable inorganic-organic hybrid materials called silsesquioxanes. This process technology (named Vitolane®) allows many potential attributes to be engineered into materials at the molecular level. This talk will review the technology, the customer needs, the market place and the challenges in bringing new materials to market and how the barriers to the adoption of this potentially disruptive technology are being addressed.

Additional presentations will cover nanoscaled coatings on glass, nanoscale surface coatings, low-cost functional and polymer coatings. The presentations will also be complemented by a mini-exhibition highlighting companies supplying related goods, services and/or support to the coatings industry and an academic poster session.

Interested organisations are encouraged to register by Friday 14th October 2011 to qualify for the early-bird rates.