A hard coating 1 is a hard coating 1 to be formed on a base material 3. The hard coating 1 includes a first layer 11. A composition formula of the first layer 11 is Zr.sub.1-a-bHf.sub.aMg.sub.b(B.sub.xC.sub.yN.sub.1-x-y). In this composition formula, a, b, x, y are the respective atomic ratios of Hf, Mg, B, C, and relational expressions of 0a0.95, 0.05b0.30, 0<1-x-y are satisfied. A hard coating-covered member 10 comprises the base material 3 which is a blade edge portion of a cutting tool and the hard coating 1 which is formed on the base material 3.

A razor blade substrate having a substrate that includes a blade edge portion having a profiled geometry which is covered by a strengthening coating deposited on the razor blade substrate at least at the blade edge portion. The strengthening coating covering the blade edge tip, having a profiled geometry and having a tapering geometry with two coating sides converge toward a blade edge tip. The strengthening coating includes a strengthening layer made of a titanium- and boron-containing material.

The present disclosure provides an improvement to razor blade coating by a physical vapor deposition method, by forming a hard coating layer as a thin coating layer in which chromium boride, which is a nanocrystalline structure having high hardness, is dispersed in an amorphous mixture of chromium and boron, thereby improving the strength and hardness of the thin coating layer and securing the bonding force by chromium in the amorphous mixture between the hard coating layer and a blade substrate on which an edge of the razor blade is formed.

A method for forming a multilayer thin film exhibiting perpendicular magnetic anisotropy includes alternately sputtering a CoFeSiB target and a Pd target inside a vacuum chamber to form a [CoFeSiB/Pd] multilayer thin film on a substrate disposed inside the vacuum chamber. The number of times the [CoFeSiB/Pd] multilayer thin film is stacked may be 3 or more.

The invention to which this application relates is improvements to the provision of Molybdenum and/or Tungsten containing coatings of the type which can be used to improve certain characteristics of the surface of a substrate to which the coating is applied. In one embodiment the coating also includes Ti to provide the advantages of high adhesion, high humidity and wear resistance of the coating and TiB.sub.2 to promote the formation of a relatively uniform, dense, coating, so strengthening the coating which is formed and improving the high temperature performance of the coatings.

A low friction top coat over a multilayer metal/ceramic bondcoat provides a conductive substrate, such as a rotary tool, with wear resistance and corrosion resistance. The top coat further provides low friction and anti-stickiness as well as high compressive stress. The high compressive stress provided by the top coat protects against degradation of the tool due to abrasion and torsional and cyclic fatigue. Substrate temperature is strictly controlled during the coating process to preserve the bulk properties of the substrate and the coating. The described coating process is particularly useful when applied to shape memory alloys.

The present invention relates to a coated article comprising a coated surface, the coated surface consisting of a substrate and a coating system, the coating system comprising at least one protective layer consisting of one or more transition metal borides and one dopant element, wherein: the protective layer having chemical element composition defined by the formula TM.sub.xB.sub.ySi.sub.q, where TM is one or more transition metal elements selected from the group formed by Chromium, Cr, and Hafnium, Hf, Si is Silicon and is present in the protective layer as the dopant element, B is Boron, x is the concentration in atomic percent of TM in the protective layer, y is the concentration in atomic percent of B in the protective layer, and q is the concentration in atomic percent of Si in the protective layer, where x+y+q=1, 0.150.33, 0.40y0.67, and 0.1q0.40, and the atomic concentration ratio of boron to the transition metals in the protective layer is higher or equal to 2, i.e. y/x2, and the protective layer exhibits an AlB.sub.2 crystal structure.

A sputtering target structure includes a back plate characterized by a first size and a plurality of sub-targets bonded to the back plate. Each of the sub-targets is characterized by a size that is a fraction of the first size and is no greater than a threshold target size. A given sub-target characterized by a size no greater than the threshold target size exhibits no crack formation in a sputtering operation. Each of the plurality of sub-targets is in direct contact with one or more adjacent sub targets.

The present disclosure provides a razor blade coating by a physical vapor deposition method through performing a deposition with a single composite target composed of dissimilar materials with their area ratio defined to be varied in the single composite target in the direction of transferring the razor blade subject to the deposition, thereby forming a single layer in which the composition ratio of the dissimilar materials gradually changes in the thickness direction of the coating layer to improve the durability of the razor blade coating layer

The present invention relates to a cooking device including a metal holder supporting a ceramic cooking surface, the holder having a hardness no lower than 150 HV. The holder forms a substrate supporting a surface layer made of a transition metal boride or boronitride forming the cooking surface. The present invention further relates to a culinary article including a cooking device of the type above-mentioned, a household cooking appliance including a cooking device of the type above-mentioned, as well as a method for producing a cooking device of the type above-mentioned.