Abstract: A wear-resistant coating of a cutting tool has at least a single layer of an interstitial phase which comprises alloying components and a non-metallic one the content which falls within the boundaries of a region wherein a compound of this interstitial phase having the greatest thermodynamic stability is homogeneous. One of the alloying components functions as a catalyst which facilitates the compound with the high thermodynamic stability to form. A method of applying the wear-resistant coating to a cutting tool provides for condensing matter by virtue of ion bombardment and consists in introducing the catalyst into a vacuum by evaporating the material of a cathode and depositing a layer of coating on the base material of the cutting tool at a temperature thereof which permits a catalytic reaction to take place owing whereto the content of the non-metallic component falls within the boundaries of a region wherein the compound with the high thermodynamic stability is homogenous.

Abstract: A wear-resistant coating of a cutting tool has at least a single layer of an interstitial phase which comprises alloying components and a non-metallic component the content of which falls within the boundaries of a region wherein a compound of this interstitial phase having the greatest thermodynamic stability is homogeneous. One of the alloying components functions as a catalyst which facilitates the compound with the high thermodynamic stability to form. A method of applying the wear-resistant coating to a cutting tool provides for condensing matter by virtue of ion bombardment and consists in introducing the catalyst into a vacuum by evaporating the material of a cathode and depositing a layer of coating on the base material of the cutting tool at a temperature thereof which permits a catalytic reaction to take place owing whereto the content of the non-metallic component falls within the boundaries of a region wherein the compound with the highest thermodynamic stability is homogeneous.