International Thermal Spray Conference And Exposition (ITSC) To Be Held May 15-17, 2006

Celebrates 100 years of thermal spray technology and discusses future challenges

MATERIALS PARK, Ohio, Sept. 22 -- The worldwide thermal spray community will celebrate 100 years of progress and discuss future challenges and growth opportunities at the International Thermal Spray Conference and Exposition (ITSC), to be held May 15-17, 2006 in Seattle, Wash.

ITSC is sponsored and organized by the ASM Thermal Spray Society (TSS), the German Welding Society (DVS) and the International Institute of Welding (IIW).

To reflect the international audience for the event, ITSC rotates annually to locations in Europe, the Pacific Rim and North America. Being held in Seattle brings thermal spray, a unique surface engineering and coating technology, closer to American aerospace manufacturers and suppliers that already apply the technology, but organizers also look forward to bringing the benefits of thermal spray - namely, cost-effective resistance to wear, heat, corrosion and erosion - to many other industries.

"Beyond aerospace applications, thermal spray technology is critical to the industrial gas turbine, automotive and oil & gas industries, to name a few," said ITSC 2006 chairman Peter Hanneforth, president of SpaCom LLC. "For example, turbine aircraft engines can't fly efficiently without thermal spray technology. But we also want to see our attendance grow beyond the choir, so that we reach a new audience with the message that thermal spray can reduce costs and improve service life for many other industrial and consumer products applications."

By co-locating the ITSC 2006 event with AeroMat (Advanced Materials for Aerospace Applications) and the International Surface Engineering Congress, both sponsored by ASM International - The Materials Information Society, ITSC organizers look forward to reaching new engineers and designers.

"We believe that thermal spray is not as well known and understood as it should be," Hanneforth said. "We want to reach engineers and designers who have had surface-related problems and have solved them the best way they could - but are open to a better, more cost-effective way, one that has been proven successful in other applications and industries."

ITSC 2006 will be the largest in the event's history in terms of presentations, attendees and exhibitors. Organizers will develop the technical program from a record number of abstract submissions, while the ITSC Exposition features the world's largest gathering of thermal spray equipment, materials and consumable suppliers as well as coating applicators and service providers.

For more information about the ASM Thermal Spray Society and ITSC 2006, visit www.asminternational.org/tss.