Abstract

Occupying a floor area of 110 sq. m., the Advanced Coatings Applied Research Laboratory (ACARL) was established in December 2000 to transfer advanced industrial coating technology to local industries. Financed mainly by the Innovation and Technology Fund, ACARL acquires state-of-the-art R&D facilities to adapt and improve the coating technology and processes for local industrial applications. With years of experience in the research of coating and application of the Closed Field Unbalanced Magnetron Sputtering Ion Plating System, it has been found that this special system produces magnetrons with good operating characteristics, while simultaneously generating a dense plasma close to the workpieces. Magnetron sputtering is therefore used at ACARL to produce some of the highest quality coatings currently available from any technique. These coatings have excellent adhesion to the workpiece and a range of properties tailored for today's demanding engineering applications. ACARL focuses on functional coatings which can be broadly divided into two main groups, namely Hard Metal Nitride (Titanium Nitride (TiN) and Titanium Aluminum Nitride (TiAlN)) and Solid Lubricant (Titanium doped diamond-like carbon (Ti-DLC), Graphit-ICTM (Cr-DLC) and MoSTTM ).

Contact Information
Mr H Y Wong
Director, Technology Transfer Office
City University of Hong Kong
83 Tat Chee Avenue
Kowloon, Hong Kong
Tel : (852) 2788 8428
Fax : (852) 2788 9119
Email : hy.wong@cityu.edu.hk