Advanced Coatings Applied Research Laboratory (ACARL) was established in 2001 with a world-class facility for the research and development of advanced coatings at the City University of Hong Kong. Materials technology is fundamental to many fields such as information processing, environmental protection, health & safety, and energy. The ever-increasing demand of advanced engineering applications has led to the search for new materials with significantly improved properties. In particular, there have been many advances in the surface engineering technology in recent years, which enables the design and manufacture of metallic, ceramic, polymeric and composite systems with unique combination of bulk and surface properties. It has been realized by many successful applications that coatings can resolve component degradation problems and it also provide added value and improves productivity.

In order to support continuous improvement and growing engineering demand in properties of surface coatings, ongoing high quality R&D work is an essential element of ACARL. Through R&D and collaborations with other academic institutes and industrial sectors, ACARL continues to maintain and build its recognized base of technical excellence, and provides direction and guidance for the future development in the coating technology. ACARL is a collection of facilities and people bound together by a shared mission emphasizing research, education and provide support in coating technology to the industry in Hong Kong and the region.