Patent ID: 6866889

Claim:
A holder for supporting a series of drills in a vapor deposition chamber to allow a ceramic coating to be deposited on regions of the drills extending from tips of the drills, the holder comprising: at least one perforated outer wall provided with an array of apertures into which the drills can be inserted from an exterior of the holder, the drills are being inserted with said regions projecting outwards from the holder, a support wall within a hollow interior of the holder for the or each perforated outer wall, said support wall being parallel with and spaced from the outer wall and provided with a corresponding array of apertures for locating the inserted drills with shanks thereof substantially parallel, stop means within the hollow interior of the holder spaced inwardly of the or each support wall for locating the tips of drills of the same diameter projecting to substantially the same extent from the outer wall, and a gas passage separate from said apertures for permitting gas flow between the interior and exterior of the holder, wherein the hollow interior of the holder and the locating of the drills is such that the part of each drill inwards of the outer wall is shielded from the exterior but is exposed to atmosphere within the hollow interior of the holder.