There is disclosed a protected item including an item that needs protection and a protective coating having a hardness of at least about 8 on the Mohs scale. The protected item includes a light transmission in part or all of the visible wavelength of at least about 60% and a light reflection in the visible wavelength of about 4% or less.

Disclosed are a high-entropy carbide ceramic material and a preparation method thereof, and also a ceramic coating and its preparation method and use. The high-entropy carbide ceramic material has a chemical composition of (ZrCrTiVNb)C and includes Zr, Cr, Ti, V, and Nb, with a same mole fraction of 6-10%.

The present invention provides a method for producing an SiC single crystal, enabling obtaining an SiC single crystal substrate in which a screw dislocation-reduced region is ensured in a wide range, and an SiC single crystal substrate. The SiC single crystal substrate is produced using a seed crystal having an off angle in the off orientation from a {0001} plane by a production method wherein in advance of a growth main step of performing crystal growth to form a facet {0001} plane in the crystal peripheral part on the crystal end face having grown thereon the bulk silicon carbide single crystal and obtain more than 50% of the thickness of the obtained SiC single crystal, a growth sub-step of growing the crystal at a higher nitrogen concentration than in the growth main step and at a growth atmosphere pressure of 3.9 to 39.9 kPa and a seed crystal temperature of 2,100° C. to less than 2,300° C. is included.

A crystal growth apparatus includes: a chamber including a gas inlet, a gas outlet, a welded portion, and a water-cooling portion configured to water-cool a portion at least including the welded portion; an exhaust pump connected to the gas outlet; a dew point instrument disposed between the gas outlet and the exhaust pump, the dew point instrument being configured to measure a dew point of gas passing through the gas outlet.

An investment casting system includes a core having at least one fine detail, a shell positioned relative to said core, and a strengthening coating applied at least to the at least one fine detail.

A method of containing molten aluminum using non-wetting materials comprising depositing MgAl.sub.2O.sub.4, or one selected from an oxide, Al.sub.2O.sub.3, nitride, AlN, BN, carbide, and SiC, onto a crucible. An apparatus for containment of molten aluminum using non-wetting materials comprising a layer of MgAl.sub.2O.sub.4, or one selected from an oxide, Al.sub.2O.sub.3, nitride, AlN, BN, carbide, and SiC, deposited onto a crucible.

A bulk SiC single crystal is produced by placing an SiC seed crystal in a crystal growth region of a growth crucible, and introducing SiC source material into an SiC reservoir region, and the bulk SiC single crystal is grown on from an SiC growth gas phase by deposition. The growth crucible is surrounded by an insulation that extends rotationally symmetrically and axially towards the central middle longitudinal axis. The insulation has mutually concentric insulation cylinder components and the insulation is notionally divided into insulation ring segments that are in turn notionally divided into volume elements. The insulation cylinder components are selected and positioned relative to one another such that every volume element of the insulation ring segment in question has a volume element density varying by not more than 10% from an average insulation ring segment density of the insulation ring segment in question.

In a surface-coated cutting tool in which a hard coating layer having a total layer thickness of 0.5 to 10 μm is deposited on a surface of a tool body made of WC-based cemented carbide or TiCN-based cermet, the hard coating layer has an alternately laminated structure of A layers and B layers, in a case where the A layer is: (Al.sub.aTi.sub.1-a)N (here, a is in atomic ratio), the A layer satisfies 0.50≦a<0.75, in a case where the B layer is: (Al.sub.bTi.sub.1-b)N (here, b is in atomic ratio), the B layer satisfies 0.75≦b≦0.95, and when a layer thickness per layer of the A layers is represented by x (nm) and a layer thickness per layer of the B layers is represented by y (nm), 5y≧x≧3y and 250 (nm)≧x+y≧100 (nm) are satisfied.

Electrochromic devices and methods may employ the addition of a defect-mitigating insulating layer which prevents electronically conducting layers and/or electrochromically active layers from contacting layers of the opposite polarity and creating a short circuit in regions where defects form. In some embodiments, an encapsulating layer is provided to encapsulate particles and prevent them from ejecting from the device stack and risking a short circuit when subsequent layers are deposited. The insulating layer may have an electronic resistivity of between about 1 and 10.sup.8 Ohm-cm. In some embodiments, the insulating layer contains one or more of the following metal oxides: aluminum oxide, zinc oxide, tin oxide, silicon aluminum oxide, cerium oxide, tungsten oxide, nickel tungsten oxide, and oxidized indium tin oxide. Carbides, nitrides, oxynitrides, and oxycarbides may also be used.

A cathodic arc coating apparatus includes a vessel, a cathode disposed in the vessel, and a stinger assembly. The stinger assembly includes a first magnetic field generator disposed in a first stinger cup in selective contact with the cathode. The first stinger cup has at least a first electrically conductive cup portion spaced from a second electrically conductive cup portion by a thermally insulating layer therebetween.