Patent ID: 7718043

Claim:
A method of providing a hard coating on a workpiece, comprising: a) positioning the workpiece in a coating system adjacent at least one TiSiX target and at least one AlCrX target, each of said targets having an associated cathodic arc source, wherein X is selected from the group consisting of N, C, B, CN, BN, CBN, NO, CO, BO, CNO, BNO, and CBNO; b) rotating the workpiece; c) applying a biasing voltage to said workpiece; and d) selective operating said cathodic arc sources to deposit a multilayer coating onto the workpiece, said multilayer coating comprising: at least one layer selected from the group consisting of: an (Al y Cr 1-y )X layer, wherein 0.2≦y≦0.7 and X is selected from the group consisting of N, C, B, CN, BN, CBN, NO, CO, BO, CNO, BNO, and CBNO, and a (Ti z Si 1-z )X layer, wherein 0.99≧z≧0.7, and at least one layer stack comprising the following layers: one (AlCrTiSi)X mixed layer followed by another (Ti z Si 1-z )X layer followed by another (AlCrTiSi)X mixed layer followed by another (Al y Cr 1-y )X layer, wherein X, y and z are as previously defined.