The present invention relates to a cutting tool consisting of a hard base material, such as cemented carbide, cermet, ceramic, and cubic boron nitride, and a hard coating film formed on the hard base material. In the cutting tool according to the present invention, the hard coating film, which is composed of a monolayer or multilayer structure, is formed on a base material, wherein the hard coating film comprises a layer composed of an oxide, wherein in the layer composed of an oxide, the oxygen content of an edge center of the cutting tool is higher than the oxygen content in an area distanced from the edge center by 50 μm or more.

A surface coated member having improved stability and a longer service life is provided. The surface coated member includes a base member and a hard coating formed on a surface thereof. The hard coating is constituted of one or more layers. At least one layer among the layers is a layer including hard particles. The hard particles include a multilayer structure having a first unit layer and a second unit layer being layered alternately. The first unit layer includes a first compound. The second unit layer includes a second compound. The first compound and the second compound are respectively made of one or more kind of element selected from the group consisting of a group 4 element, a group 5 element, a group 6 element of a periodic table, and Al, and one or more kind of element selected from the group consisting of B, C, N, and O.

A component includes a metallic substrate having a tribological surface and a coating. The coating includes a first layer disposed on the tribological surface and a second layer disposed on the first layer. The first layer includes titanium, chromium, or a diamond-like carbon (DLC). The second layer includes a disulfide.

A coated cutting tool is provided which allows for satisfactory machining over a long period of time, particularly in the machining of difficult-to-machine materials with low thermal conductivity. The coated cutting tool includes a substrate and a coating layer formed on a surface of the substrate, wherein: at least one layer of the coating layer comprises a predetermined layer containing a compound having a composition represented by the formula: (Al.sub.XTi.sub.1-X)N [wherein x denotes an atomic ratio of the Al element based on a total of the Al element and the Ti element, and x satisfies 0.60≤x≤0.85]; a value of an orientation index TC (311) of a cubic (311) plane of the predetermined layer is from 2.5 or more to 4.2 or less; and an average thickness of the predetermined layer is from 1.0 μm or more to 12.0 μm or less.

A coated cutting tool, comprising: a substrate; and a coating layer formed on a surface of the substrate, wherein the coating layer includes a lower layer and an upper layer in this order from the substrate side toward the surface side of the coating layer, and the upper layer is formed on a surface of the lower layer, the lower layer contains a compound having a composition represented by (Al.sub.xTi.sub.1-x)N, an average thickness of the lower layer is 1.0 μm or more and 15.0 μm or less, the upper layer contains an α-Al.sub.2O.sub.3 layer containing α-Al.sub.2O.sub.3, an average thickness of the upper layer is 0.5 μm or more and 15.0 μm or less, and in the α-Al.sub.2O.sub.3 layer, a texture coefficient TC (1, 1, 6) of a (1, 1, 6) plane is 2.0 or more and 6.0 or less.

A valve component comprising a substrate with a sliding surface, the sliding surface being designed to be subjected to sliding against another surface during operation of the valve, wherein at least a portion of the sliding surface is coated with a coating comprising an under-layer comprising tungsten and an upper-layer deposited atop the under-layer, said upper-layer comprising diamond-like-carbon, wherein the under-layer comprises carbon and has a layer thickness of at least 11 micrometers, and the upper-layer has a lower coefficient of friction than the under-layer and has a layer thickness of at least 1.5 micrometers.

A diamond tool includes a diamond at least on a cutting edge including one or two or more diamond grains including a diamond phase composed of a diamond crystal structure and a graphite phase composed of a graphite crystal structure. When a ratio I.sub.π*/I.sub.σ* between an intensity of a π* peak derived from a π bond of carbon in the graphite phase and an intensity of a σ* peak derived from a σ bond of carbon in the graphite phase and a σ bond of carbon in the diamond phase is determined for the diamond grain by measuring an energy loss associated with excitation of K-shell electrons of carbon by electron energy loss spectroscopy, the ratio I.sub.π*/I.sub.σ* of the diamond grain on a surface of the cutting edge is 0.1 to 2 and a ratio I.sub.π*/I.sub.σ* of the diamond grain at a depth position of 0.5 μm from the surface of the cutting edge is 0.001 to 0.1.

A coated tool of the present invention includes a base material and a hard coating film on the base material. The hard coating film is a nitride or carbonitride containing aluminum (Al) of 65 atomic % or more 90 atomic % or less, titanium (Ti) of 10 atomic % or more 35 atomic % or less, a total of aluminum (Al) and titanium (Ti) of 85 atomic % or more, and argon (Ar) of 0.20 atomic % or less. The hard coating film satisfies a relationship of Ih×100/Is≤12 when a peak intensity of a (010) plane of AlN of a hexagonal close-packed structure is Ih and a sum of peak intensities due to predetermined nine crystal planes of TiN and AlN is Is in an intensity profile obtained from a selected area diffraction pattern of a transmission electron microscope.

An object of the invention is to provide a coated cutting tool whose tool life can be extended by having excellent wear resistance and fracture resistance. The coated cutting tool includes: a substrate; and a coating layer formed on a surface of the substrate, in which the coating layer includes a lower layer, an intermediate layer, and an upper layer in this order from a substrate side to a surface side of the coating layer, the lower layer includes one or more Ti compound layers formed of a specific Ti compound, the intermediate layer contains TiCNO, TiCO, or TiAlCNO, the upper layer contains α-type Al.sub.2O.sub.3, an average thickness of the lower layer is 2.0 μm or more and 8.0 μm or less, an average thickness of the intermediate layer is 0.5 μm or more and 2.0 μm or less and is 10% or more and 20% or less of a thickness of the entire coating layer, an average thickness of the upper layer is 0.8 μm or more and 6.0 μm or less, and in the intermediate layer, a ratio of a length of CSL grain boundaries to a total length 100% of a total grain boundary is 20% or more and 60% or less.

A coated cutting tool and a process for the production thereof id provided. The coated cutting tool consists of a substrate body of WC-Co based cemented carbide and a coating, the coating including a first (Ti,Al)N multilayer, a first gamma-aluminium oxide layer, and a set of alternating second (Ti,Al)N multilayers and second gamma-aluminium oxide layers.