A coating includes a first base layer including a nitride of at least Al and Cr, a second base layer including a nitride of at least Al and Cr overlying the first base layer, and an outermost indicator layer overlying the second base layer. The first base layer has a positive residual compressive stress gradient. The second base layer has substantially constant residual compressive stresses. The outermost indicator layer includes a nitride of Si and Me, wherein Me is at least one of Ti, Zr, Hf, and Cr. The outermost indicator layer has residual compressive stresses that are less than the residual compressive stresses of the second base layer.

The present invention resides in the unifying idea of synchronizing a positive voltage pulse supplied to an electrically conductive or ferromagnetic tube and a exciting negative voltage pulse on a hollow cathode induced on the background of a high-frequency capacitive discharge. In one embodiment, the invention relates to a method of generating low-temperature plasma in a vacuum chamber comprising a hollow cathode and an electrode, the method comprising the step of igniting the pulsed DC discharge in the hollow cathode wherein the positive voltage pulse at least partially overlaps with the negative voltage pulse, and the positive voltage pulse at least partially overlaps with the negative voltage pulse on the hollow cathode. In another embodiment, the present invention relates to a method of coating the inner walls of hollow tubes which utilizes the above-mentioned low-temperature plasma generation process. In another embodiment, the invention relates to a low-temperature plasma generating device comprising a hollow cathode located in the vacuum chamber, a RF plasma source, a pulse DC burst source, and a bipolar pulse source. In another embodiment, an object of the invention is an apparatus adapted to coat the inner sides of hollow tubes comprising a low-temperature plasma generating device.

A coated tool for hot stamping of coated or uncoated sheet metals, comprising a coated substrate surface to be in contact with the coated or uncoated metal sheet, wherein the coating in the coated substrate surface comprises one or more inferior layers and one or more superior layers, where the inferior layers are deposited closer to the substrate surface than the superior layers, and: the inferior layers are designed for providing load bearing capacity, the superior layers are designed for providing galling resistance, at least one superior layer is deposited having a multi-nanolayer structure wherein: one type of nanolayer is composed of at least 90 at.-% of chromium and nitrogen, a second type of nanolayer is composed of at least 90 at.-% of titanium, aluminum and nitrogen, a third type of nanolayer is composed of at least 90 at.-% of vanadium carbon and nitrogen.

Provided are a low-price fuel cell separator with high corrosion resistance and a method for manufacturing the separator. The present disclosure relates to a fuel cell separator including a metal substrate and a titanium layer containing titanium formed on the metal substrate, and a method for manufacturing the separator. A ratio of a (100) plane to a sum of values obtained by dividing peak intensities of the (100) plane, a (002) plane, and a (101) plane derived from titanium in an X-ray diffraction analysis of a separator surface by respective relative intensities is a constant value or more.

A method for applying a coating having at least one TiCN layer to a surface of a substrate to be coated by means of high power impulse magnetron sputtering (HIPIMS), wherein, to deposit the at least one TiCN layer, at least one Ti target is used as the Ti source for producing the TiCN layer, said target being sputtered in a reactive atmosphere by means of a HIPIMS process in a coating chamber, wherein the reactive atmosphere comprises at least one inert gas, preferably argon, and at least nitrogen gas as the reactive gas, wherein: the reactive atmosphere additionally contains, as a second reactive gas, a gas containing carbon, preferably CH4, used as the source of carbon to produce the TiCN layer wherein, while depositing the TiCN layer, a bipolar bias voltage is applied to the substrate to be coated, or at least one graphite target is used as the source of carbon for producing the TiCN layer, said target being used for sputtering in the coating chamber using a HIPIMS process with the reactive atmosphere having only nitrogen gas as the reactive gas, wherein the Ti targets are preferably operated by means of a first power supply device or a first power supply unit and the graphite targets are operated with pulsed power by means of a second power supply device or a second power supply unit.

The present disclosure provides an improvement to razor blade coating by a physical vapor deposition method, by forming a hard coating layer as a thin coating layer in which chromium boride, which is a nanocrystalline structure having high hardness, is dispersed in an amorphous mixture of chromium and boron, thereby improving the strength and hardness of the thin coating layer and securing the bonding force by chromium in the amorphous mixture between the hard coating layer and a blade substrate on which an edge of the razor blade is formed.

A substrate is positioned on a substrate supporting upper surface of a substrate support. An arrangement of permanent magnets is positioned beneath the substrate supporting upper surface so that permanent magnets are disposed underneath the substrate. The deposition material is deposited into the recesses formed in the substrate by sputtering a sputtering material from a target of a magnetron device. While depositing the deposition material, the arrangement of permanent magnets provides a substantially uniform lateral magnetic field across the surface of the substrate which extends into a region beyond a periphery of the substrate to enhance resputtering of deposited material deposited into the recesses.

Processing chamber components and methods of manufacture of same are provided herein. In some embodiments, a component part body includes a component part body having a base plane and at least one textured surface region, wherein the at least one textured surface region comprises a plurality of independent surface features having a first side having at least a 45 degree angle with respect to the base plane. In at least some embodiments, the textured surface includes a plurality of independent surface features which are pore free.

The tantalum-doped molybdenum disulfide/tungsten disulfide (MoS.sub.2/WS.sub.2) multi-layer film includes a titanium transition layer, a titanium/tantalum/molybdenum disulfide/tungsten disulfide (Ti/Ta/MoS.sub.2/WS.sub.2) multi-layer gradient transition layer, and a tantalum-doped MoS.sub.2/WS.sub.2 multi-layer layer which are successively laminated in a thickness direction. The preparation method includes: successively depositing the titanium transition layer, the Ti/Ta/MoS.sub.2/WS.sub.2 multi-layer gradient transition layer, and the tantalum-doped MoS.sub.2/WS.sub.2 multi-layer layer on the surface of a matrix by adopting a magnetron sputtering technology to obtain the tantalum-doped MoS.sub.2/WS.sub.2 multi-layer film. The tantalum-doped MoS.sub.2/WS.sub.2 multi-layer film has good matrix binding strength, hardness and elasticity modulus, good friction and abrasion performance, good temperature self-adopting performance, heat and humidity resistance, and high temperature oxidization resistance under an atmospheric environment at different temperatures, and can meet the requirements of stable lubrication and long-life service of aerospace vehicles.

A jet-black coating that resists wear; first, at least one DLC layer with a high degree of hardness is applied to a component and then a gradient layer, whose density decreases in the direction toward the surface, is applied to this DLC layer. By means of the refraction index progression that this produces in the gradient layer, the gradient layer functions as a reflection-reducing layer.