Best of rubber industry to gather in Pittsburgh Oct. 10-13

PITTSBURGH—The countdown is on. Are you ready for the 2016 International Elastomer Conference?

From Oct. 10-13, the best of the best of our industry will be gathering in Pittsburgh at our annual event where customers, manufacturers and suppliers of materials, equipment, tools and services, and educators come together.

Exhibitors and attendees will take advantage of this forum for an exchange of ideas, observations, regulatory reforms and emerging scientific technologies, as well as learning, networking, seeing current customers and making new ones.

If you are unfamiliar with the International Elastomer Conference and want to learn more, all details about our conference can be found at rubberiec.org.

Our ACS Rubber Division staff is diligently working on this last leg of final preparations to ensure a successful conference for everyone. A total of 108 speakers are ready to share their knowledge with you through 117 presentations during the 190th Technical Meeting.

Session topics include rubber reinforcement; new commercial developments; cure systems and networks; synthetic rubber and synthetic rubber-based products; tire traction, handling and tire performance prediction; contributed session; aging and degradation, natural rubber and bio materials for rubber; adhesion; mechanics and modeling of rubber; and silicon materials for rubber.

Our educational symposium offers yet another way to increase your knowledge and learn from the best. Courses include Introduction to Rubber Technology for Non-Technologists, Internal Mixers and Mixing Parameters, Molding of Rubber, Silicone Basics and Introduction to Rubber Bonding.

There are 184 exhibitors currently set be featured at the International Rubber Expo and even more continue to come on board as we get closer to the event. A visit to the expo can help improve research and development business, laboratory operations and manufacturing processes, as well as provide an opportunity to learn about new technologies and techniques in instrumentation, equipment, software, hardware and analytical ser-vices.

The expo is also where you can find the right business partner for whatever your area of focus. The conference provides many other opportunities outside of the technical meeting and expo too.

Make new contacts or catch up with current ones at the welcome reception and 5K walk/run. Learn about what some of the best companies in our industry have to offer at the Expo Theater presentations. Support our future industry professionals as they present papers and posters at the Student Colloquium and Poster Session.

Interested in new career opportunities? The career fair allows you to speak to several respected companies and potentially interview right there on the spot. Become more involved with ACS Rubber Division by attending an open committee meeting. We hope you take advantage of all this conference offers.

Our organization is stronger than ever. Membership numbers, the number of exhibitors, attendees, technical papers presented and course participants at our conference, as well as size of our expo, continue to increase each year.

Industry engagement with the ACS Rubber Division also continues to increase, as reflected in the number of individuals attending our educational courses offered throughout the year and engaging with us via our social media channels.

It has been an exciting year with the unveiling of our Elastomer Training Center, launch of our new website and kickoff of our five-year strategic plan.

Great things are to come as we continue to keep this momentum going, and everyone in our industry has the potential to benefit from our growing strength as an organization. Be sure to visit our website at rubber.org to learn all that we offer and see what you could be missing out on.

Everyone at ACS Rubber Division is excited that his year's International Elastomer Conference is again shaping up to be another great event. We invite you to join us in Pittsburgh to experience it for yourself.

Cermak is the marketing manager for the ACS Rubber Division.