Patent ID: 7258933

Claim:
A coated cutting tool member whose hard coating layer exhibits a superior chipping resistance during a high speed and severe cutting operation, the coated cutting tool member comprising: a hard substrate; and a hard coating layer of a nitride compound containing Ti, Al, and Zr, which is formed on a surface of the hard 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 composition profile in which maximum Al containing points and minimum Al 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 A 1 component continuously varies from the maximum Al containing points to the minimum Al containing points and from the minimum Al containing points to the maximum Al containing points, the maximum Al containing points satisfy a composition formula of (Ti 1 -(X+Y)Al X Zr Y )N (where X indicates an atomic ratio of 0.45 to 0.65, and Y indicates an atomic ratio of 0.01 to 0.15) and the minimum Al containing points satisfy a composition formula of (Ti 1−(X+Y)Al X Zr Y )N (where X indicates an atomic ratio of 0.15 to 0.40, and Y indicates an atomic ratio of 0.01 to 0.15), and a distance between one of the maximum Al containing points and adjacent one of the minimum Al containing points is from 0.01 to 0.1 μm.