Patent ID: 7094479

Claim:
A surface-coated cutting tool member whose hard coating layer exhibiting a superior wear resistance during a high speed cutting operation, the surface-coated cutting tool member comprising: cemented carbide substrate containing tungsten carbide, a cermet substrate containing titanium carbonitride, or a sintered substrate containing cubic boron nitride; and a hard coating layer of a nitride compound containing aluminum and titanium, which is formed on a surface of the substrate using a physical vapor deposition method at an overall average thickness of 1 to 15 μm, wherein the hard coating layer has a component concentration profile in which maximum aluminum containing points (minimum titanium containing points) and minimum aluminum containing points (maximum titanium containing points) appear alternately and repeatedly at a predetermined interval in a direction of thickness of the hard coating layer, and the amount of contained aluminum (or titanium) is continuously changed from the maximum aluminum containing points to the minimum aluminum containing points and from the minimum aluminum containing points to the maximum aluminum containing points, wherein the maximum aluminum containing points satisfy a composition formula of (Al X Ti 1−X )N (where X indicates an atomic ratio of 0.70 to 0.95), the minimum aluminum containing points satisfy a composition formula of (Al Y Ti 1−Y )N (where Y indicates an atomic ratio of 0.40 to 0.65), and wherein a distance between one of the maximum aluminum containing points and adjacent one of the minimum aluminum containing points is from 0.01 to 0.1 μm.