State of the art for the industrial use of ceramic PVD coatings

Since the beginning of the 1980s ceramic PVD coatings have been used in industry for many applications. At present four types of PVD coatings are frequently used: TiN, Ti(C,N), ( Ti,Al) N and CrN. Based on a materials triangle approach, it is shown which coating should be used for which application. Different industrial case studies will demonstrate the effectiveness of PVD coating. Some recent developments, of which various aspects are still mainly in the research phase, like diamond( like) coatings, duplex treatments, self lubricating coatings, Ti2N coatings and PVD coatings deposited at low temperatures (<250C), are also described.