A process for producing a hard material layer on a substrate. A multilayer coating system is applied to the substrate by alternate deposition of CrTaN and AlTiN by way of physical vapor deposition (PVD). The CrTaN and/or the AlTiN are preferably deposited from a composite target.

A coated cutting tool comprising a substrate and a coating layer formed on a surface of the substrate, wherein: the coating layer comprises at least one -type aluminum oxide layer; and, in the -type aluminum oxide layer, when regarding a texture coefficient of a (0,0,6) plane as a TC18 (0,0,6), and also regarding a texture coefficient of a (0,0,12) plane as a TC18 (0,0,12), the TC18 (0,0,6) is the highest texture coefficient and the TC18 (0,0,12) is the second highest texture coefficient.

A wood or resin cutting tool with improved durability is provided. The wood or resin cutting tool is composed of a base material made of steel or a cemented carbide alloy, and a coating formed on at least one of the rake face and the clearance face of the cutting tool. The coating includes a periodic structure layer made of chromium oxynitride, in which high oxygen regions having a high concentration of oxygen in the texture and low oxygen regions having a lower concentration of oxygen in the texture than the high oxygen regions periodically exist in the thickness direction of the coating. The periodic structure layer is formed such that the nitrogen concentration periodically turns high and low in the thickness direction of the layer corresponding to the high oxygen regions and the low oxygen regions.

A coated component is generally provided, along with methods of forming such a coating system. The coated component includes a substrate having a surface with a coating system thereon. The coating system may include a columnar thermal barrier coating (TBC) over the surface of the substrate, with the columnar TBC including surface-connected voids. An intermediate layer is over the columnar TBC layer. The intermediate layer has a surface opposite of the columnar TBC that is rougher than the surface of the columnar TBC. A second TBC is over the intermediate layer.

A cutting tool comprises a base including a hard alloy and a coating layer located on a surface of the base, wherein the coating layer comprises at least one TiCN layer, an Al.sub.2O.sub.3 layer and an outermost layer which are laminated in order from a side of the base, and a content of Cl at a thickness-center position of the TiCN layer is higher than a content of Cl at a thickness-center position of the outermost layer and the content of Cl at the thickness-center position of the outermost layer is higher than a content of Cl at a thickness-center position of the Al.sub.2O.sub.3 layer in a glow-discharge emission spectrometry (GDS analysis).

A method of applying a coating system to a substrate includes applying a first layer of a high hardness and high modulus of elasticity with an added metal to the substrate, applying a second layer of the high hardness and high modulus of elasticity in combination with the added metal to the first layer. A percent by volume of the added metal in the second layer is lower than the percent by volume of the added metal in the first layer. The method also includes applying two or more intermediate layers formed from an applied mixture of the high hardness, high modulus of elasticity material and a metal material between the first layer and the second layer.

A surface-coated cutting tool includes a tool body made of a tungsten carbide-based cemented carbide or a titanium carbonitride-based cermet and a hard coating layer that includes a lower layer and an upper layer and formed on the tool body. The lower layer is composed of a Ti compound layer including at least a TiCN layer. The upper layer includes an Al.sub.2O.sub.3 layer having an -type crystal structure. In the Al.sub.2O.sub.3 crystal grains of the upper layer, when a coincidence grain boundary distribution graph is measured, sulfur is segregated in a grain boundary of 31 or more and a grain boundary length thereof is 20% to 50% relative to the whole grain boundary length in the constituent atom sharing lattice point form of 3 or more. Absolute values of residual stress of a flank face and a rake face are 100 MPa or less.

Methods for forming high temperature coating systems are provided, as are gas turbine engine components including high temperature coating systems. In embodiments, the coating formation method includes forming a fracture-resistant Thermal Barrier Coating (TBC) layer over a workpiece surface. The fracture-resistant TBC layer is produced from a first coating precursor material containing an amount of zirconia in mole percent (ZrO.sub.mol %1) and an amount of tantala in mole percent (TaO.sub.mol %1). A Calcium-Magnesium Aluminosilicate (CMAS) resistant TBC layer is formed over the fracture-resistant TBC layer from a second coating precursor material, which contains an amount of zirconia in mole percent (ZrO.sub.mol %2), an amount of tantala in mole percent (TaO.sub.mol %2), and an amount of one or more rare earth oxides in mole percent (REO.sub.mol %2). The first and second coating precursor materials are formulated such that ZrO.sub.mol %1 is greater than ZrO.sub.mol %2, TaO.sub.mol %1 is less than TaO.sub.mol %2, and TaO.sub.mol %2 is substantially equivalent to REO.sub.mol %2.

A composition and method of kinetically depositing the composition to form a coating onto an exterior surface of a zirconium alloy cladding of a light water nuclear reactor which at least partially adheres to the exterior surface. The coating composition includes a first component and a second component. The first component is selected from the group consisting of zirconium, zirconium oxide and mixtures thereof. The second component is selected from the group consisting of Zr.sub.2AlC ceramic, Ti.sub.2AlC ceramic, Ti.sub.3AlC.sub.2 ceramic, Al.sub.2O.sub.3, aluminum, zirconium silicide, amorphous and semi-amorphous alloyed stainless steel, and mixtures of Zr.sub.2AlC ceramic, Ti.sub.2AlC ceramic and Ti.sub.3AlC.sub.2 ceramic. The coating has a gradient emanating from the exterior surface of the cladding toward an exposed outer surface of the coating such that percent by weight of the first component decreases and the second component increases from the exterior surface of the cladding toward the exposed outer surface of the coating.

A superalloy target wherein the superalloy target has a polycrystalline structure of random grain orientation, the average grain size in the structure is smaller than 20 ?m, and the porosity in the structure is smaller than 10%. Furthermore, the invention includes a method of producing a superalloy target by powder metallurgical production, wherein the powder-metallurgical production starts from alloyed powder (s) of a superalloy and includes the step of spark plasma sintering (SPS) of the alloyed powder (s).