MANNING, S.C.—Alucoil S.A., a leading European manufacturer of high quality metal composite materials and other wall cladding products, has entered the North American market with the purchase of Intrabond USA, from the North American group Intraco. Intrabond USA, which began operations in 2009, consists of a modern manufacturing plant with two aluminum composite material (ACM) production lines. Close to the port of Charleston and major highways, the plant is strategically located to service the US domestic market as well as import raw materials and export finished products to Canada, Mexico, Central America, and the Caribbean. Alucoil S.A., founded in 1996, belongs to Grupo Aliberico. The new entity will be called ALUCOIL NORTH AMERICA. Intrabond products will be migrated to Alucoil brands in the future and further enhanced by technology and product line additions from its home operations in Spain.

ATLANTA—SAF (Southern Aluminum Finishing) has announced that Huber Street Properties, LLC (HSP), a closely related entity to SAF, has purchased the plant in which SAF-West currently operates. SAF-West serves the Western US, Canada, and Pacific Rim markets with architectural aluminum distribution, fabrication, and finishing services. The 13-acre property includes approximately 230,000 square feet of manufacturing and office space. The purchase helps cement SAF plans for expanded capabilities and services, including a new anodizing plant scheduled for this year. “We are excited to grow SAF facilities in California,” said James McClatchey, SAF vice president. “We are here to stay in Redding, our base for growing our markets for architectural aluminum in western US and Asia.” HSP is also developing plans to upgrade the building to attract new tenants for the facilities not operated by SAF. “The building offers an opportunity for a true mixed-use facility including manufacturing as well as offices. We see lots of possibilities,” said McClatchey. Atlanta-based SAF is a nation-wide aluminum extrusions and sheet distributor, aluminum fabricator, and aluminum finisher specializing in Kynar painting and architectural anodizing. SAF distributes, fabricates, anodizes, and paints aluminum sheet, extrusion, column covers, architectural panels, and commercial roofing trim. SAF offers products and services to architectural specifiers, glazing contractors, and other industries. Services include aluminum batch anodizing, painting, coil anodizing, powder coating, and architectural fabrication. For more information, visit www.saf.com.

POMPANO BEACH, Fla.—Steve Howes, chief executive officer (CEO) of Glasslam, in a partnership with Pat Argento, owner of Hurricane Impact Glass & Aluminum, has purchased Florida Powder Coating in Lantana, Fla., forming a new company, Cirrus Powder Coating. Included in the new company's plant will be two automated spacer manufacturing systems that will produce Air-Tight S silicone spacer. The additional foam spacer capacity will help Glasslam service the North American market with higher desiccant, higher durometer, and higher dimensional tolerance product than its competition—and with improved lead-times. Glasslam, based here, is a world leader in laminated glass technology and quality window components. For more information, visit www.glasslam.com or call 954/ 975-3233.

SARASOTA, Fla.—The Chemical Coaters Association International (CCAI) has released a new edition of “Pretreatment for Industrial Finishing Applications,” a 122-page guide to surface cleaning and conversion coating methods used in effective industrial finishing operations. Edited by Duane Fudge, Chemetall, the manual was reviewed and completely re-written to include information about current technology and methods for paint pretreatment. In the past year, CCAI has revised two additional training manuals: “Electrodeposition” and “Powder Coatings”. All manuals contain completely updated and new materials reflecting the current state of finishing technologies. To order, visit CCAI's Web site www.ccaiweb.com and click on EDUCATION, then TRAINING MANUALS. You can order online with a credit card or print and fax an order form.

CARY, N.C.—Arkema Coating Resins has formed a business function dedicated to building more proactive relationships with coatings formulators and other customers. The Customer Experience Group will be directly responsible for quality management as well as customer and business services. Karen Fearrington, the previous business services manager for Arkema, will lead the group as director of customer experience. She is directly responsible for developing goals and expanding resources to meet the needs outlined by both Arkema and customers. To learn more about Arkema Coating Resins, visit www.arkemacoatingresins.com.

MANCHESTER, UK—Following the successful opening of offices in Japan, Elcometer has completed the expansion of its sales and service facilities in Germany. “The increase in demand for our products and services, when coupled with the launch of a new range of ultrasonic NDT products in the new year has meant we simply had to expand our offices,” said Markus Biess, sales manager, Elcometer Instruments GmbH. “The doubling of our offices will allow us to further enhance the high levels of service and support our customers demand, and we look forward to exceeding their expectations into the future.”

WASHINGTON—Seeking to maintain competition in markets for key industrial finishing equipment, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) challenged Graco Inc.'s proposed $650 million acquisition of ITW Finishing LLC from Illinois Tool Works Inc., a rival producer of equipment used to apply paints and other liquid finishes to a variety of manufactured goods. According to the FTC, the proposed deal would hurt competition and lead to higher prices and reduced innovation for the North American manufacturers who rely on this equipment. The FTC has issued an administrative complaint against Graco Inc., Illinois Tool Works Inc. and ITW Finishing LLC seeking to stop the deal. The FTC will file a separate complaint in federal district court in the District of Columbia seeking an order to halt the transaction temporarily, pending the FTC's administrative proceeding and any subsequent appeals. The FTC charges that if the proposed acquisition were completed, the combined firm would control a dominant share of all North American sales of industrial liquid finishing equipment and have a monopoly specifically in the market for circulation pumps used in paint systems in the automobile industry. The FTC's complaint also alleges that the proposed transaction would end the close competition between Graco and ITW, its largest competitor, reduce or eliminate the substantial one-time price breaks and other discounts both firms offer to distributors, and lessen Graco's incentives to develop new products after the merger. The competition lost by the acquisition, the complaint states, could not be easily replaced, as Exel North America, the firm in the market with a distant third place in sales, as well as other fringe firms, lack the brand acceptance and distribution to challenge a combined Graco/ITW. Significant hurdles and barriers would also deter new competitors from entering the markets. The evidentiary hearing is scheduled before an administrative law judge at the FTC, beginning on May 15, 2012.

LIMA, Ohio—MetoKote's board of directors promoted Jeffrey J. Oravitz to the position of president and chief executive officer (CEO). He replaces DeWayne Pinkstaff, who has left the company after many years of dedicated service. The company has also appointed Robert E. Lee to the position of executive chairman of the board. Oravitz joined the company in 2005 and has held key executive positions within MetoKote's operations and sales areas, including his most recent role as the company's vice president of Global Business Development. Before joining MetoKote, he was employed by PPG Industries for 20 years in a number of leadership roles throughout their coatings businesses. Lee has served on MetoKote's board of directors since 2010 and has a broad leadership background in the chemical industry, as well as processing and manufacturing companies, including Millennium Chemicals, Quantum Chemicals, SCM Chemicals, Grove Crane, and Cavenham Forest Products.

THE WOODLANDS, Tex.—After working with the National Association of Corrosion Engineers (NACE) for 2 years to hold the North American Industrial Coating Show, the Powder Coating Institute (PCI) has decided to present its own event, COATING 2012. The show will be held Oct. 9-11 at the America's Center, St. Louis. PCI will roll out a Web site for COATING 2012 by the end of the year. For more information, contact Jennifer Egan, program director, at 832/585-0770; e-mail jegan@powdercoating.org; Web site www.powdercoating.org.