A valve including a surface movably engaged with another surface. A coating is on the surface. The surface can have a CoF of less than 0.1; a hardness in excess of 1,200 HVN; impermeability to liquids at pressures ranging from 15 and 20,000 psi; a surface finish of 63 or less; and a thickness ranging from 0.5 to 20 mils.

A coated cutting tool includes a substrate with a coating having a total thickness of 0.25-30 m. The coating has a first layer and a second layer, the first layer being a wear resistant PVD deposited layer having a thickness of 0.2-15 m arranged between the substrate and the second layer, and wherein the second layer is a Cr layer.

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 creping blade and a preparation method thereof are provided. The creping blade comprises a base, wherein a wear-resistant coating is provided on the top of the base, and a protective layer is arranged below the wear-resistant coating at the contact point between the creping blade and a dryer, and the hardness of the protective layer is lower than that of the surface of the dryer of a paper machine. The creping blade of the invention is advantageous in that the friction portion of working surface has an unlimited area and has a high wear-resistant coating, and the paper impact portion has high wear resistance and high impact resistance, so that the creping blade has a long service life, which can be several times or even tens of times that of the common steel creping blade.

The present invention relates to a hard film having improved wear resistance and improved toughness. A hard film according to the present invention is formed by using a PVD method on a surface of a base material, wherein: the hard film includes a first hard layer and a second hard layer; the first hard layer has a thickness of approximately 0.1-3.0 m and is composed of Ti.sub.1-aAl.sub.aN (0.3a0.7), and has a single phase structure; and the second hard layer has a thickness of approximately 0.5-10 m and is composed of Ti.sub.1-a-bAl.sub.aMe.sub.bN (0.3a0.7, 0b0.05, the Me being at least one selected from V, Zr, Si, Nb, Cr, Mo, Hf, Ta and W); according to an XRD phase analysis method, a ratio ([200]/[111]) of the intensity of a [200] peak to the intensity of a [111] peak is approximately 1.5 or higher; the second hard layer preferentially grows in a [200] direction; the [200] peak is located at approximately 42.7-44.6 and is composed of three phases, and the [111] peak is located at approximately 37.0-38.5 and is composed of three phases; and when a peak having a largest intensity among the peaks of the three phases is a main peak and remaining peaks are sub-peaks, a ratio (main peak/sub-peaks) of the intensity of the main peak to the intensities of the sub-peaks in a [200] face is approximately 2 or higher, and a ratio (main peak/sub-peaks) of the intensity of the main peak to the intensities of the sub-peaks in a [111] face is approximately 2 or higher.

A surface-coated cutting tool includes a tool body, a lower layer, and an upper layer. The lower layer consists of a W layer, a metal carbide layer, and a metal carbonitride layer. The W layer is formed from a surface of the tool body to a depth of 10 to 500 nm. The metal carbide layer includes any one of Ti, Cr, Zr, Hf, Nb, and Ta. The upper layer is alternately laminated with an A layer and a B layer and has a total thickness of 1.0 to 8.0 m. The A layer has a thickness of 0.1 to 5.0 m and is represented by (Al.sub.xCr.sub.1-x)N (0.40x0.80). The B layer has a thickness of 0.1 to 5.0 m and is represented by (Al.sub.1-a-b-c-sTi.sub.aCr.sub.bSi.sub.cY.sub.d)N (0a0.40, 0.05b0.40, 0c0.20, and 0.01d0.10).

A cutting tool includes a substrate and a coating that covers the substrate, the coating includes an -Al.sub.2O.sub.3 layer, and the -Al.sub.2O.sub.3 layer has an orientation index TC(0 0 12) of a (0 0 12) plane not smaller than 4 and not larger than 8.5, an orientation index TC(2 0 14) of a (2 0 14) plane not smaller than 0.5 and not larger than 3, and a total of the orientation index TC(0 0 12) and the orientation index TC(2 0 14) not larger than 9.

A piston ring is produced from a main body made of steel or cast steel and comprising a running face, an inner circumferential surface, upper and lower flank regions, and transition regions from the running face to the respective flank region, by coating the running face and the transition regions with a first chromium layer, removing this first chromium layer at the running face down to the base material of the main body, providing at least the running face of the layer-free main body with a nitride layer, and, finally, coating the running face and the transition regions with at least one further chromium layer.

A sliding element, in particular a piston ring, has a coating which has the following layers from the inside outwards: a polycrystalline, metal-containing adhesive layer, an intermediate layer, and at least one amorphous carbon layer, the intermediate layer having the following partial layers from the inside outward: an AxCy layer, with c standing for carbon, A standing for a metal, preferably of the metal-containing adhesive layer, and x as well as y each comprising values of 1-99, and a crystalline-containing or crystal-containing carbon layer.

A coated cylinder liner 20 comprises a wear resistant layer 22, such as a DLC coating, and a metallic adhesive layer 24, such as chromium or titanium, deposited on an inner surface 26 thereof. The layers 22, 24 each have a thickness t.sub.w, t.sub.a varying by not more than 5% along at least 70% of the length of the inner surface 26. The metallic adhesive layer 24 is deposited by sputtering a consumable metallic electrode 28 onto the inner surface 26. The sputtering can be magnetron sputtering. The consumable metallic electrode 28 can include a hollow opening 40 with orifices 50 for providing a carrier gas into the deposition chamber 52. In addition, the inner surface 26 of the cylinder liner 20 can provide the deposition chamber 52 by sealing a first opening 36 and second opening 38 of the cylinder liner 20.