A vacuum arc source for arc evaporation of boride includes: a cathode made of at least 90 at-% of boride, in particular made of more than 98 at-% of boride; an anode, which is preferably in the shape of a disk; a body made of a material which is less preferred by arc discharge compared to the cathode, the body surrounding the cathode in such a way that during operation of the vacuum arc source, movement of an arc on an arc surface of the cathode is limited by the body. At least 90 at-% of the material of the anode is of the same chemical composition as the cathode.

Described herein is a submerged-plasma process for the production of amorphous and nanocrystalline nanostructured materials, depending on processing conditions, from precursors that can be in the liquid or injected into the plasma or both.

A method for manufacturing a piston ring includes the following steps: (A) a step of supplying an arc current to a cathode formed of a carbon material having a density of 1.70 g/cm.sup.3 or more, to ionize the carbon material; and (B) a step of applying a bias voltage in an environment where hydrogen atoms are substantially absent to form a DLC film on a surface of a base material for a piston ring.

The step (A) is continuously carried out, subsequently the step (A) is interrupted, and then the step (A) is restarted, which sequence is repeated thereby to form the DLC film having an extinction coefficient of 0.1 to 0.4 as measured using light having a wavelength of 550 nm and a nanoindentation hardness of 16 to 26 GPa.

A vacuum process method for a magnetic recording medium having a surface protective layer for protecting a magnetic recording layer formed on a substrate includes a ta-C film forming step of forming a ta-C film on the magnetic recording layer, a transportation step of transporting a substrate on which the ta-C film is formed, a radical generation step of generating radicals by exciting a process gas, and a radical process step of irradiating a surface of the ta-C film with the radicals.

The present invention relates to a coating device comprising a vacuum coating chamber for conducting vacuum coating processes, said vacuum coating chamber comprising: —one or more cooled chamber walls 1 having an inner side 1 b and a cooled side 1 a, —protection shields being arranged in the interior of the chamber as one or more removable shielding plates 2, which cover at least part of the surface of the inner side 1 b of the one or more cooled chamber walls 1, wherein at least one removable shielding plate 2 is placed forming a gap 8 in relation to the surface of the inner side 1 b of the cooled chamber wall 1 that is covered by said removable shielding plate 2, wherein: —thermal conductive means 9 are arranged filling the gap 8 in an extension corresponding to at least a portion of the total surface of the inner side 1 b of the cooled chamber wall 1 that is covered by said removable shielding plate 2, wherein the thermal conductive means 9 enable conductive heat transfer between said removable shielding plate 2 and the respectively covered cooled chamber wall 1.

A surface coated cutting tool comprises: a tool substrate and a coating layer on a surface of the tool substrate; wherein the coating layer comprises a lower layer, an intermediate layer, and an upper layer, in sequence from the tool substrate toward the surface of the tool. The lower layer comprises an A layer having an average composition represented by formula: (Al.sub.1-xCr.sub.x)N, where x is 0.20 to 0.60; the intermediate layer comprises a B layer having an average composition represented by formula: (Al.sub.1-a-bCr.sub.aSi.sub.b)N, where a is 0.20 to 0.60 and b is 0.01 to 0.20; and the upper layer comprises a C layer having an average composition represented by formula: (Ti.sub.1-α-βSi.sub.αW.sub.β)N where α is 0.01 to 0.20 and β is 0.01 to 0.10; and the upper layer has a repeated variation in W level with an average interval of 1 nm to 100 nm between adjacent local maxima and minima.

Provided is a cutting tool comprising a base body and a hard carbon film arranged on the base body, in which, when the cross section of the hard carbon film is observed using a high angle annular dark field scanning transmission electron microscope, the area proportion of black regions with an equivalent circle diameter of 10 nm or more is 0.7% or less, and the hard carbon film has a hydrogen content of 5 atom% or less.

Provided is a cutting tool comprising a base body and a hard carbon film arranged on the base body, in which the hard carbon film includes an amorphous phase and a graphite phase, the degree of crystallinity of the hard carbon film is no more than 6.5%, and the degree of orientation of the graphite phase is no more than 6.

The present invention relates to coated sliding parts having coating systems which allow better sliding performance under dry and/or under lubricated conditions. The coating systems according to the present invention being characterized by having an outermost layer which—is a smooth oxide-containing layer in case of sliding applications under lubricated conditions, or—is a self-lubricated layer comprising molybdenum nitride, in case of sliding applications under dry or lubricated conditions, is a self lubricated layer with a structured surface comprising a multitude of essentially circular recesses with diameters of several micrometers or below, the recesses randomly distributed over the surface.

An arc ignition device for cathodic arc deposition of a target material onto a substrate, comprising a trigger finger arranged moveable between a contacting position and a resting position, wherein in the contacting position a side surface of an adjacent target can be physically contacted by the trigger finger, and in the resting position the adjacent target cannot be contacted by the trigger finger, wherein during cathodic arc deposition of a target material, the trigger finger is arranged movable between the contacting position and the resting position in such a way that the contamination of the trigger finger with deposited target material during the cathodic arc deposition of the target material can be minimized.