Published by Zahra Awan on October 19, 2021
The European Aluminum Surface Treatment Association (ETSAL) held its first virtual conference. At the opening ceremony, ESTAL President Ivo Vermeeren announced various speeches.
The virtual conference was held from October 6th to 7th and organized three half-day meetings. The digital platform provided participants with the possibility of establishing networks and contacting industry suppliers through virtual exhibitions.
The first conference was dedicated to powder coatings. Ms. Mercè Berengueras of Axalta Coating Systems, the main sponsor of the conference, first introduced the latest trends in the architectural powder coatings market in terms of colors and finishes.
In the late afternoon, Mr. Egbert Stremmelaar from Qual-Ion talked about the investigation conducted by the Qualanod Dutch working group to understand how many parameters affect the color of anodization and thus its reproducibility. Finally, Dr. Judy Runge from Apple Inc. ended the anodizing conference with a wonderful speech on the basics of aluminum surface anodization, explaining the nature and mechanism of the development and growth of anodized aluminum.
The second day of the ESTAL virtual conference was devoted to topics of interest to the anodizing and coating industries.
First, Bob Lambrechts from Aluminium Europe explained how political actions and global trade interventions affect the aluminum market. Followed by Dr. Terry Goodwin from ECCA (European Coil Coatings Association), he talked about the lessons learned by his association during the 5-year review of BREF STS. Before the break, Dr. Alexander Lutz from the Free University of Brussels and a member of the ESTAL working group "Secondary Aluminum" reported on his research on the effect of increasing the recycled content in aluminum alloys and the corrosion sensitivity of coated profiles.
Roberto Scazzola from DG Grow of the European Commission introduced the current status of the European chemicals sustainable development strategy and urged participants to express their concerns to the European Commission through various public consultations. Finally, Oliver Katschmareck from Chemetall explained how his company has improved its digital capabilities and provided customers with new service methods and real-time digital support.
ESTAL was very satisfied with the attendance and the lively Q&A session after the speech. Looking back on these two interesting days, he expressed his warmest gratitude to sponsors and exhibitors for their financial support, speakers and organizers. The virtual conference in 2021 provides an excellent opportunity to understand the development of the aluminum surface treatment market. The next ESTAL conference will be held in Budapest in 2022 or 2023.
For registered conference participants, the conference platform (provided by the Hungarian Diamond Congress company) can access all presentations on demand, and can contact exhibiting companies before the end of November 2021.
Aluminium International Today is an English journal dedicated to aluminum production and processing.
It contains summaries of global news, events and statistics, as well as more detailed technical articles, company and country profiles, conference reports, and regular regional economic briefings.