Abstract
Wear resistant surface coatings, particularly those of Titanium Nitride (TiN) have been successfully applied to HSS cutting tools. Recently a “second generation” of new PVD coatings have been deposited on HSS substrates. In this paper, new alloy nitride coatings, including TiAIN, TiZrN and TiCN, produced by either the “Steered Arc’” or “Magnetron Sputtering”2 techniques are considered and their performance compared with conventional bright finished drills and “standard” TiN coatings on twist drills.