A blood sample collection tube and other vessels are described including an article surface and a coating set comprising a tie coating or layer of SiOxCy or SiNxCy applied to the article surface, a barrier coating or layer of SiOx, and a pH protective layer of SiOxCy or SiNxCy. The vessels optionally contain a fluid with a pH of 4 to 8, alternatively 5 to 9. The barrier coating or layer prevents oxygen from penetrating into the thermoplastic vessel, and the tie coating or layer and pH protective coating or layer together protect the barrier layer from the contents of the vessel.

Provided is a piston ring having excellent low-friction properties and abrasion resistance manufactured without the need for precision control using an ordinary film formation device that does not have a special function. A piston ring obtained by coating an amorphous carbon film on the surface of a ring-shaped substrate, the piston ring being configured so that the amorphous carbon film is formed by CVD, an increase region, in which the ratio sp.sup.2/sp.sup.3 of the sp.sup.2 bond to the sp.sup.3 bond continuously increases from the substrate surface toward the film surface, and a decrease region, in which the ratio sp.sup.2/sp.sup.3 continuously decreases, are formed in alternating fashion, a soft film in which the ratio sp.sup.2/sp.sup.3 is low and a hard film in which the ratio sp.sup.2/sp.sup.3 is high are formed so as to be layered in alternating fashion by continuous variation of the ratio sp.sup.2/sp.sup.3 in the boundary between the increase region and the decrease region, and the decrease regions are formed in equal number to or with one region less than the number of increase regions.

The present disclosure generally relates to processing chamber seasoning layers having a graded composition. In one example, the seasoning layer is a boron-carbon-nitride (BCN) film. The BCN film may have a greater composition of boron at the base of the film. As the BCN film is deposited, the boron concentration may approach zero, while the relative carbon and nitrogen concentration increases. The BCN film may be deposited by initially co-flowing a boron precursor, a carbon precursor, and a nitrogen precursor. After a first period of time, the flow rate of the boron precursor may be reduced. As the flow rate of boron precursor is reduced, RF power may be applied to generate a plasma during deposition of the seasoning layer.

In the surface-coated cutting tool, a Ti compound layer containing at least nitrogen and carbon is formed on a surface of cutting tool substrate, a nitrogen concentration in the Ti compound layer, in a case of being measured in a direction perpendicular to the surface of the cutting tool substrate in a vicinity of a cutting edge, gradually increases as a distance from cutting tool substrate increases within a range of 0.20 m from the surface of the cutting tool substrate toward the Ti compound layer, an average concentration gradient of the nitrogen concentration is 20 at %/m or more and 300 at %/m or less, and an average nitrogen concentration in the Ti compound layer in the vicinity of the cutting edge is lower than an average nitrogen concentration in the Ti compound layer at a position of a flank face away from the cutting edge by 3 at % or more.

Disclosed is a part including a metal substrate, a non-hydrogenated amorphous ta-C or aC carbon coating that coats the substrate, and an undercoat which is based on chromium (Cr), carbon (C) and silicon (Si) and is disposed between the metal substrate and the amorphous carbon coating and to which the amorphous carbon coating is applied, characterized in that the undercoat included, at its interface with the amorphous carbon coating, a ratio of silicon in atomic percent to chromium in atomic percent (Si/Cr) of 0.35 to 0.60, and a ratio of carbon in atomic percent to silicon in atomic percent (C/Si) of 2.5 to 3.5.

A reactor for plasma-assisted chemical vapor deposition includes a plasma duct for containing one or more substrates to be coated by ions; an arc discharge generation system for generating a flow of electrons through the plasma duct from a proximal end toward a distal end of the plasma duct; a gas inlet coupled to the distal end for receiving a reactive gas; a gas outlet coupled to the proximal end for removing at least a portion of the reactive gas to generate a flow of the reactive gas through the plasma duct from the distal end toward the proximal end, to generate the ions from collisions between the electrons and the reactive gas; and a separating baffle positioned for restricting flow of the reactive gas out of the plasma duct to maintain a high pressure in the plasma duct to increase rate of deposition of the ions onto the substrates.

A vessel has an interior surface facing a lumen. The interior surface includes a tie coating or layer, a barrier coating or layer, and a pH protective coating or layer. The tie coating or layer can comprise SiO.sub.xC.sub.y or SiN.sub.xC.sub.y, where x is from about 0.5 to about 2.4 and y is from about 0.6 to about 3. The barrier coating or layer can comprise SiO.sub.x, wherein x is from 1.5 to 2.9. The barrier coating or layer reduces the ingress of atmospheric gas into the lumen. The pH protective coating or layer can comprise SiO.sub.xC.sub.y or SiN.sub.xC.sub.y, as well. In an embodiment, in the presence of a fluid composition contained in the lumen and having a pH between 5 and 9, the calculated shelf life of the package can be more than six months at a storage temperature of 4 C.

A coated cutting tool, comprising: a substrate; and a coating layer formed on the substrate, wherein the coating layer includes a lower part layer and an upper part layer formed on the lower part layer, the lower part layer has an average thickness of 2.0 m or more and 15.0 m or less, and is formed of a Ti oxycarbonitride layer including a compound having a composition represented by formula (1) below:

Ti(C.sub.1-x-yN.sub.xO.sub.y)(1)

(where, x denotes an atomic ratio of an N element based on a total of a C element, the N element, and an O element, y denotes an atomic ratio of the O element based on a total of the C element, the N element, and the O element, and 0.35x0.60 and 0.01y0.10 are satisfied),
a FWHM of a rocking curve of a plane (4,2,2) of the lower part layer, which is obtained through X-ray diffraction, is 20 or less, the upper part layer is formed of an -aluminum oxide layer having an average thickness of 1.0 m or more and 15.0 m or less, and a FWHM of a rocking curve of a plane (0,0,12) of the upper part layer, which is obtained through X-ray diffraction, is 20 or less.

In an intermediate layer formed between a base material and a DLC layer, a Ti layer and a TiC layer formed on a surface of the Ti layer are provided, and a carbon content of the entire layer containing the Ti layer and the TiC layer is 53 at % or more and 77 at % or less.

A surface-coated cutting tool includes a base material and a coating formed on the base material. The coating includes an -Al.sub.2O.sub.3 layer. The -Al.sub.2O.sub.3 layer contains a plurality of -Al.sub.2O.sub.3 crystal grains and chlorine, and has a TC(006) of more than 5 in texture coefficient TC(hkl). The -Al.sub.2O.sub.3 layer includes lower and upper layers, the lower layer is located closer to the base material than the upper layer is, and the upper layer is located opposite to the base material across the lower layer, in a thickness direction of the -Al.sub.2O.sub.3 layer. The lower layer has a thickness of 1.0 m. The upper layer has a thickness of 0.5 m or more. The chlorine in the lower layer has a concentration distribution in which an atomic concentration C.sub.Cl of the chlorine decreases in a direction away from the base material, in a thickness direction of the lower layer.