The purpose of the invention is to provide technology, which, in addition to being capable of forming thick hard carbon films of excellent durability even using PVD, is able to establish both chipping resistance and wear resistance in the formed hard carbon film and able to improve low friction properties and peeling resistance. Provided is a coating film to be coated on the surface of a substrate, the coating film having a total film thickness of greater than 1 m to 50 m wherein: when a cross-section is observed using bright field TEM images, white hard carbon layers that are shown as relatively white and black hard carbon layers that are shown as black are alternately laminated in the thickness direction; and the white hard carbon layers have regions that have grown in a fan-shape in the thickness direction.

A method of producing a locator pin with wear-resistant, corrosion resistant, and electrically insulating coating on selected areas of the surface off a metallic core include depositing a coating on the selected areas. The locator pin may have a single layer of a ceramic coating deposited using plasma electrolytic oxidation or may have a composite coating that includes a layer of vanadium carbide on selected areas of a surface of a locator pin and a layer diamond-like carbon on top of and in contact with the vanadium carbide layer. The vanadium carbide coating may be deposited using a thermal diffusion process and the diamond-like carbon coating may be deposited using a plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition process. The coating prevents weld splatter from adhering to the coated areas, and prevents the locator pin from acting as a shorting path during welding of parts located by the locator pin.

[Problem] To produce a DLC film excellent in hardness and adhesiveness while preventing a film-forming rate from slowing even when the gas pressure in a chamber is a low pressure without requiring a large-scale facility such as a thermostatic device. [solution] There is provided a DLC film film-forming method being a film-forming method to film-form a DLC film on a substrate by a plasma CVD method, the method including: setting a voltage to be applied to a substrate using a DC pulse power supply to a bias voltage; using an acetylene gas or a methane gas as a film-forming gas to be supplied into a chamber; setting the total pressure of the gas in the chamber to not less than 0.5 Pa and not more than 3 Pa when the methane gas is used; setting the total pressure of the gas in the chamber to not less than 0.3 Pa and not more than 3 Pa when the acetylene gas is used; and setting the bias voltage to not less than 0.9 kV and not more than 2.2 kV.

A sliding element, such as a piston ring, for use in diesel or highly supercharged spark-ignition engines with iron-based mating running elements is provided. The sliding element includes a base material made of cast iron or steel and a coating. The coating includes a CrN layer, an Me(C.sub.xN.sub.y) layer, and a DLC layer extending from the inside to the outer side respectively. The DLC layer consists of a metal-containing substructure layer and a metal-free DLC top layer. The Me(C.sub.xN.sub.y) layer is crystalline and Me is tungsten (W), chromium (Cr), or Silicon (Si). The hardness of the metal-free DLC top layer is harder than the metal-containing substructure layer.

This titanium product includes a base metal, and a complex oxide film formed on the surface of the base metal. The base metal has a chemical composition consisting of, by mass %, platinum group elements: 0 to 0.15%, rare earth elements: 0 to 0.1%, and a balance: Ti and impurities. The complex oxide film contains a complex oxide of Ti and one or more elements selected from La, Ce, Nd, Sr and Ca, and has a thickness of 1 to 20 nm. The average grain size at the base metal surface is preferably from 20 to 300 m.

In an embodiment, a coated tool is disclosed. The coated tool includes a base material, a first layer on the base material, and a second layer coated on the first layer. The first layer contains diamond crystals therein and has a first mean crystal size. The second layer contains diamond crystals therein and has a second mean crystal size that is smaller than the first mean crystal size. The first and the second layers contain hydrogen, and have a first hydrogen content and a second hydrogen content respectively. The second hydrogen content is larger than the first hydrogen content.

A fully-dense, fluid tight, low friction coating system is described that is characterized by fluid impermeability and a reduced coefficient of friction. The coating system includes a fully dense, fluid tight underlying layer; and a low friction layer. Unlike conventional materials requiring a sealant, the coating systems of the present invention achieves better fluid tightness and maintains said fluid tightness along one or more sealing surfaces at higher service temperatures and service pressures than previously attainable. The constituents of the fully-dense, fluid tight, low friction coating system are physically and chemically compatible so as to not adversely impact lubricity, wear resistance and corrosion resistance during the service life of a component coated with the fully-dense, fluid tight, low friction coating system.

A tool for machining fiber-reinforced materials, said tool having a tool body having a particular cutting edge that has at least a main function surface and has a diamond coating applied at least to said main function surface. In order to provide a tool and a method which are especially suitable for machining fiber-reinforced materials, the surface of the diamond coating has a reduced peak height Spk of less than 0.25 m.

There is provided a method for manufacturing a master on which an arbitrary pattern is formed, the method including: forming a thin-film layer on an outer circumferential surface of a base material in a round cylindrical or round columnar shape; generating a control signal corresponding to an object on the basis of an input image in which the object is depicted; irradiating the thin-film layer with laser light on the basis of the control signal and thereby forming a thin-film pattern corresponding to the object on the thin-film layer; and forming a pattern corresponding to the object on the outer circumferential surface of the base material using, as a mask, the thin-film layer on which the thin-film pattern is formed.

A fully-dense, fluid tight, low friction coating system is described that is characterized by fluid impermeability and a reduced coefficient of friction. The coating system includes a fully dense, fluid tight underlying layer; and a low friction layer. Unlike conventional materials requiring a sealant, the coating systems of the present invention achieves better fluid tightness and maintains said fluid tightness along one or more sealing surfaces at higher service temperatures and service pressures than previously attainable. The constituents of the fully-dense, fluid tight, low friction coating system are physically and chemically compatible so as to not adversely impact lubricity, wear resistance and corrosion resistance during the service life of a component coated with the fully-dense, fluid tight, low friction coating system.