Improved thin film coatings, cutting tool materials and processes for cutting tool applications are disclosed. A boron-doped graded diamond thin film for forming a highly adhesive surface coating on a cemented carbide (WC—Co) cutting tool material is provided. The thin film is fabricated in a HFCVD reactor. It is made of a bottom layer of BMCD in contact with a surface layer of the cemented carbide, a top layer made of NCD and a transition layer with a decreasing concentration gradient of boron obtained by changing the reaction conditions through ramp up option in hot filament CVD reactor. The top layer has a low friction coefficient. The bottom layer in the coating substrate interface has better interfacial adhesion through cobalt and boron reactivity and decreased cobalt diffusivity in the diamond. The transition layer has minimized lattice mismatch and sharp stress concentration between the top and bottom layers.

A cutting tool includes a substrate and a coating film that is disposed on the substrate, wherein the coating film includes a first layer composed of metal tungsten and hexagonal ditungsten carbide, and the first layer has an elastic deformation rate of 43.0 or more and 58.0 or less.

A component including a substrate surface coated with a coating including at least one MoN layer having a thickness not less than 40 nm. Between the substrate surface and the at least one MoN layer the component includes: i) a substrate surface hardened layer, which is a hardened, nitrogen-containing substrate surface layer that is the result of a nitriding treatment carried out at the substrate surface and has a thickness not less than 10 nm, preferably not less than 20 nm and not greater than 150 nm, and/or ii) a layer system composed of more than 2 MoN layers and more than 2 CrN layers, wherein the MoN and CrN layers forming the layer system are individual layers deposited alternatingly one on each other forming a multilayer MoN/CrN coating film.

Provided is a coated cutting tool, which includes a hard coating film containing a layer (b) formed of a nitride or a carbonitride, a layer (c) which is a layered coating film formed by alternately layering a nitride or carbonitride layer (c1) that contains 55 atom % or more and 75 atom % or less of Al, Cr having a second highest content percentage, and at least Si and a nitride or carbonitride layer (c2) that contains 55 atom % or more and 75 atom % or less of Al and Ti having a second highest content percentage, each layer having a film thickness of 50 nm or less, and a layer (d) that is a nitride or carbonitride that contains, with respect to a total amount of metal elements (including metalloid elements), 55 atom % or more and 75 atom % or less of Al, Cr having a second highest content percentage.

A coating includes a first base layer including a nitride of at least Al and Cr, a second base layer including a nitride of at least Al and Cr overlying the first base layer, and an outermost indicator layer overlying the second base layer. The first base layer has a positive residual compressive stress gradient. The second base layer has substantially constant residual compressive stresses. The outermost indicator layer includes a nitride of Si and Me, wherein Me is at least one of Ti, Zr, Hf, and Cr. The outermost indicator layer has residual compressive stresses that are less than the residual compressive stresses of the second base layer.

A coated cutting tool including a substrate and a single layer or multi-layer hard material coating is provided. The substrate is selected from cemented carbide, cermet, ceramics, cubic boron nitride (cBN), polycrystalline diamond, steel or high-speed steel. The hard material coating includes at least one layer of gamma-Al.sub.2O.sub.3, exhibiting particularly high hardness and reduced Young's modulus. The gamma-Al.sub.2O.sub.3 layer of the coated cutting tool is obtainable by means of a reactive magnetron sputtering process using at least one Al target, wherein the deposition is carried out using a reaction gas composition of argon (Ar) and oxygen (O.sub.2) at a total reaction gas pressure within the range from at least 1 Pa to at most 5 Pa, at an O.sub.2 partial pressure within the range from 0.001 Pa to 0.1 Pa, and at a temperature within the range from 400° C. to 600° C.

The present application relates to methods of preparing a coated substrate and coated substrates which can be optionally prepared from such methods. The methods comprise depositing on the substrate a single abrasion resistant layer by magnetron sputtering or depositing on the substrate a dual layer comprising a first abrasion resistant layer deposited by magnetron sputtering and a second abrasion resistant layer deposited by plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition.

A method of improving corrosion and mar resistance of steel components by creating a black magnetite finish, with a medium temperature process, prior to application of a phosphate layer coating.

A surface-coated cutting tool includes a substrate and a coating film that coats the substrate, wherein the coating film includes a hard coating layer constituted of a domain region and a matrix region, the domain region is a region having a plurality of portions divided and distributed in the matrix region, the domain region has a structure in which a first layer composed of a first Al.sub.x1Ti.sub.(1-x1) compound and a second layer composed of a second Al.sub.x2Ti.sub.(1-x2) compound are layered on each other, the matrix region has a structure in which a third layer composed of a third Al.sub.x3Ti.sub.(1-x3) compound and a fourth layer composed of a fourth Al.sub.x4Ti.sub.(1-x4) compound are layered on each other.

Provided is a transparent structure having improved wear resistance and flexibility, and a structure according to the present invention is a nanolayered structure in which a nitride nanofilm of one or more elements selected from metals and metalloids; and a boron nitride nanofilm are alternately layered.