An apparatus for protecting an interior surface of a fusion reactor vessel. The apparatus comprises a power supply operably connected to an electrode for insertion into the vessel. The apparatus supports a solid material within the vessel, and is configured such that power supplied to the electrode within the vessel causes a plasma located in proximity to the solid material to sputter the solid material in order to deposit a protective material on said interior surface.

Using processes disclosed herein, materials and structures are created and used. For example, processes can include melting boron nitride or amorphous carbon into an undercooled state followed by quenching. Exemplary new materials disclosed herein can be ferromagnetic and/or harder than diamond. Materials disclosed herein may include dopants in concentrations exceeding thermodynamic solubility limits. A novel phase of solid carbon has structure different than diamond and graphite.

In a surface-coated cutting tool, an A layer made of an (Al.sub.1-xTi.sub.x)N layer (0.35x0.6 by an atom ratio) and a B layer made of a (Al.sub.1-y-zTi.sub.ySi.sub.z)N layer (0.35y0.6 and 0.01z0.1 by an atom ratio) are layered on a surface of a tool body in which at least a cutting edge is made of a cBN sintered body. A layer thickness ratio of the A layer and the B layer (t.sub.B/t.sub.A) is 2 to 5, an X-ray diffraction intensity ratio I(200)/I(111) as the entire hard coating layer is more than 3 and 12 or less, a full width at half maximum of a peak of I(200) is 0.3 to 1.0, the I.sub.A(200)/I.sub.A(111) of the A layer is 2 to 10, and a full width at half maximum of the peak of the I.sub.A(200) is 0.3 to 1.0.

A protective coating layer, an electronic device including such a protective coating layer, and the methods of making the same are provided. The electronic device includes a substrate, a thin film circuit layer disposed over the substrate, and a protective coating layer disposed over the thin film circuit layer. The protective coating layer includes a first coating and a second coating disposed over the first coating. Each coating has a cross-plane thermal conductivity in a direction normal to a respective coating surface equal to or higher than 0.5 W/(m*K). The first coating and the second coating have different crystal structures, or different crystalline orientations, or different compositions, or a combination thereof to provide different nanoindentation hardness. The first coating has a hardness lower than that of the second coating.

Using processes disclosed herein, materials and structures are created and used. For example, processes can include melting boron nitride or amorphous carbon into an undercooled state followed by quenching. Exemplary new materials disclosed herein can be ferromagnetic and/or harder than diamond. Materials disclosed herein may include dopants in concentrations exceeding thermodynamic solubility limits. A novel phase of solid carbon has structure different than diamond and graphite.

A cutting tool is a cutting tool comprising a substrate and a coating film disposed on the substrate, in which the coating film includes a first layer, the first layer is composed of an alternate layer where a first unit layer and a second unit layer are alternately stacked, the first unit layer is composed of Ti.sub.1-a-bAl.sub.aCe.sub.bN, a is 0.350 or more and 0.650 or less, b is 0.001 or more and 0.100 or less, the second unit layer is composed of Al.sub.cV.sub.1-cN, c is 0.40 or more and 0.75 or less, and a and c satisfy a relationship of c>a.

A cutting tool comprising a base material and a coating, wherein the coating includes a first layer having a multilayer structure in which a first unit layer and a second unit layer are alternately stacked; a thickness of the first unit layer is 2 to 50 nm; a thickness of the second unit layer is 2 to 50 nm; a thickness of the first layer is 1.0 ?m or more and 20 ?m or less, the first unit layer is composed of Ti.sub.aAl.sub.bB.sub.cN, and the second unit layer is composed of Ti.sub.dAl.sub.eB.sub.fN, wherein 0.49?a?0.70, 0.19?b?0.40, 0.10?c?0.20, a+b+c=1.00, 0.39?d?0.60, 0.29?e?0.50, 0.10<f?0.20, d+e+f=1.00, 0.05?a-d?0.20, and 0.05?e-b?0.20 are satisfied, and a percentage of the number of atoms of titanium to the total number of atoms of titanium, aluminum and boron is 45% or more in the first layer.

A device of executing vacuum processing has a chamber capable of keeping the chamber as a whole in a depressurized state; a feeding roller so disposed as to hang a reinforcement fiber down in the chamber; a processor so disposed in the chamber as to pass the reinforcement fiber hung down in the chamber through the processor; a capture device so disposed as to capture and keep a leading end of the reinforcement fiber passing the processor and vertically falling down in place; a winding bobbin configured to wind the reinforcement fiber processed by the processor; and a resilient cord withdrawn in synchronism with the winding bobbin from a first position where the resilient cord surrounds the leading end kept in place by the capture device to a second position where the resilient cord gets in contact with and leads the reinforcement fiber to the winding bobbin.

A method for manufacturing a blade (1) for a turbomachine, the blade having a hardfacing on its tip (4) and an erosion-protection coating (13) at least on its airfoil (3) is provided. Initially, a blade tip hardfacing is applied to the blade tip and, subsequently, a mask (10) is positioned in the region of the blade tip hardfacing, the mask covering the blade tip hardfacing, and, subsequently, the erosion-protection coating is deposited. The mask is removed after the erosion-protection coating is completed. A blade for a turbomachine, the blade having a hardfacing on its tip (4) and an erosion-protection coating (13) at least on its airfoil (3) is also provided. The erosion-protection coating at least partially covers the blade tip hardfacing, and the thickness of the erosion-protection coating decreases continuously in and/or toward the region of the blade tip hardfacing.

At least one layer in a coating located on a surface of a substrate is a domain structure layer constituted of two or more domains different in composition and a thin layer located between the domains and being different in composition from each of the domains. The thin layer is located between any one domain and any another domain and in contact therewith. When the size of each of a plurality of first domains present in the domain structure layer is defined as a diameter of a virtual circumcircle in contact with each first domain, the average value of the size of each first domain is not smaller than 1 nm and not greater than 10 nm and a thickness of the thin layer in a direction of thickness of the domain structure layer is not less than 1 atomic layer and not more than 10 atomic layers.