Claims Analysis
Total Claims: 13
Claim 1
Independent Claim
303 words
A method of applying a wear-resistant coating having a homogeneous interstitial phase to a cutting tool utilizing ionic bombardment which comprises (a) evaporating a cathode material by an electric arc in a vacuum deposition zone to form metallic ions of the cathode material; (b) applying a bias voltage to the cutting tool in the vacuum deposition zone; (c) heating and cleaning said cutting tool with bombarding ions of said cathode which is being evaporated; (d) decreasing said bias voltage to a value at which said coating can be formed on said cutting tool and the temperature of said cutting tool is lowered at the same time to a temperature for a catalytic reaction for formation of a homogeneous interstitial phase; (e) bombarding the cutting tool at the decreased bias voltage with said metallic ions of the at least one metal which form an interstitial phase with the non metal reactant; (f) introducing a non-metal reagent gas into said vacuum deposition zone; introducing a catalyst into said vacuum comprising the catalyst whereby said gas reacts with the ions of the at least one metal in the presence of said catalyst to form a layer of an interstitial phase compound having high thermodynamic stability; and (g) depositing a coating which is formed by the reaction of the metal ions with the non-metal reagent gas, in the presence of the catalyst to form a compound having the highest thermodynamic stability, wherein the catalyst and the compound are selected from the following combinations: (i) when the catalyst contains molybdenum the compound is selected from the group consisting of titanium nitride, titanium oxicarbide, titanium carbide, titanium diboride, chromium nitride and niobium carbonitride; (ii) when the catalyst contains niobium the compound is molybdenum carbide or molybdenum carbonitride; and (iii) when the cataylst contains magnesium, the compound is aluminum nitride.
Claim 2
Independent Claim
303 words
A method of applying a wear-resistant coating having a homogeneous interstitial phase to a cutting tool utilizing ionic bombardment which comprises (a) evaporating a cathode material by an electric arc in a vacuum deposition zone to form metallic ions of the cathode material; (b) applying a bias voltage to the cutting tool in the vacuum deposition zone; (c) heating and cleaning said cutting tool with bombarding ions of said cathode which is being evaporated; (d) decreasing said bias voltage to a value at which said coating can be formed on said cutting tool and the temperature of said cutting tool is lowered at the same time to a temperature for a catalytic reaction for formation of a homogeneous interstitial phase; (e) bombarding the cutting tool at the decreased bias voltage with said metallic ions of the at least one metal which form an interstitial phase with the non metal reactant; (f) introducing a non-metal reagent gas into said vacuum deposition zone; introducing a catalyst into said vacuum comprising the catalyst whereby said gas reacts with the ions of the at least one metal in the presence of said catalyst to form a layer of an interstitial phase compound having high thermodynamic stability; and (g) depositing a coating which is formed by the reaction of the metal ions with the non-metal reagent gas, in the presence of the catalyst to form a compound having the highest thermodynamic stability, wherein the catalyst and the compound are selected from the following combinations: (i) when the catalyst contains molybdenum the compound is selected from the group consisting of titanium nitride, titanium oxicarbide, titanium carbide, titanium diboride, chromium nitride and niobium carbonitride; (ii) when the catalyst contains niobium the compound is molybdenum carbide or molybdenum carbonitride; and (iii) when the cataylst contains magnesium, the compound is aluminum nitride.
Claim 3
Dependent Claim
35 words
A method of claim 1 wherein said non-metal reagent gas comprises nitrogen and said catalyst is introduced by evaporating a cathode made of a molybdenum-containing chromium alloy, to form an interstitial phase containing chromium nitride.
Claim 4
Dependent Claim
35 words
A method of claim 1 wherein said non-metal reagent gas comprises nitrogen and said catalyst is introduced by evaporating a cathode made of a molybdenum-containing niobium alloy to form an interstitial phase containing niobium carbonitride.
Claim 5
Dependent Claim
35 words
A method of claim 1 wherein said non-metal reagent gas comprises nitrogen and said catalyst is introduced by evaporating a cathode made of a magnesium-containing aluminum alloy to form an interstitial phase containing aluminum nitride.
Claim 6
Dependent Claim
38 words
A method of claim 1 wherein said non-metal reagent gas comprises nitrogen and said catalyst is introduced by evaporating a cathode made of a niobium-containing molybdenum alloy to form an interstitial phase containing molybdenum carbide or molybdenum carbonitride.
Claim 7
Dependent Claim
37 words
A method of applying a wear-resistant coating to a cutting tool as claimed in claim 1 wherein said coating is deposited on said cutting tool of 350° C.-400° C. when said cutting tool comprises high-speed cast steel.
Claim 8
Dependent Claim
44 words
A method of applying a wear-resistant coating to a cutting tool as claimed in claim 1 wherein said coating is deposited on said cutting tool at a temperature of said cutting tool of 300° C.-350° C. when said cutting tool comprises high-speed steel powder.
Claim 9
Dependent Claim
45 words
A method of applying a wear-resistant coating to a cutting tool as claimed in claim 1 wherein said coating is deposited on said cutting tool at a temperature of said cutting tool of 550° C.-650° C. when said cutting tool comprises a non-metallic refractory composition.
Claim 10
Dependent Claim
50 words
A method of applying a wear-resistant coating to a cutting tool as claimed in claim 1 wherein said coating interstitial phase comprises a compound selected from the group consisting of titanium nitride, titanium carbide, titanium oxycarbide and titanium diboride; and said material of said cathode is a molybdenum-containing titanium alloy.
Claim 11
Dependent Claim
34 words
A method of claim 1 wherein the ions of a metal which forms an interstitial phase comprises chromium, the gas comprising the nitrogen, the catalyst comprises molybdenum and the interstitial phase comprises chromium nitride.
Claim 12
Dependent Claim
29 words
A method of claim 1 wherein the ions of the at least one metal are provided by forming an arc with an alloy of the at least one metal.
Claim 13
Dependent Claim
25 words
A method of claim 11 wherein the catalyst is at least one of the metals contained in the alloy of the at least one metal.