The American Composites Manufacturers Association’s first-ever chemical processing symposium exceeds expectations.

 

The American Composites Manufacturers Association (ACMA) recently held its first-ever chemical processing symposium, Managing Corrosion with Non-Metallics, on May 23-24 in Houston, TX. Building on last year’s successful Construction, Corrosion and Infrastructure Conference in Las Vegas, the symposium was attended by 165 people, including engineers and composites end-users, as well as manufacturers, suppliers, and distributors. It also featured a sold-out Exhibit Hall.

 

“Inaugural symposium events are often a roll of the dice,” said Thom Johnson of Ashland Performance Materials, who served as chairman of the symposium planning committee. “But we dwarfed all of our expectations. This event was an unqualified success.”

 

Johnson was one of the many speakers showcased at the symposium, which centered on examining why composites are particularly suitable for use in highly corrosive environments and how they can be essential to designing better, stronger, and more reliable chemical processing systems. Other presenters included Scott Cooper and Justin Merritt of KBR Engineering; Dale Keeler of the Dow Chemical Co.; Deborah McCauley of DuPont; Kevin Spoo of Owens Corning; Jeff Eisenman of Maverick Applied Science; Brian Linnemann of RL Industries Inc.; and Kira Townsend of RPS Composites. In addition to single topic sessions, the symposium offered a pair of lively discussion panels moderated by Terry Cowley of DuPont.

 

“While Composites remains ACMA’s premier convention and exhibition effort, events like the Chemical Processing Symposium reflect our organization’s dedication to targeted education programs and expanded industry outreach,” said Tom Dobbins, chief staff executive, ACMA.

 

Ashland Performance Materials was the overall sponsor for the symposium; additional sponsors included AOC and Reichhold. NACE International, the world’s largest organization dedicated to the study of corrosion, partnered with ACMA as a participating organization for the event.

 

For more information, visit www.acmanet.org.