Latest progress in the preparation of cemented carbide tool coatings

With the rapid development of science and technology, cemented carbide tools used in mechanical processing and mining are developing constantly. Therefore, the technology of tool coating is becoming more and more diversified and complex, and the requirements for production process are also increasing. In this paper, two main preparation methods of cemented carbide tool coatings, chemical vapor deposition (CVD) and physical vapor deposition (PVD), were introduced. The development of tool coatings in recent years, including single component coatings, multi-component coatings, multi-layer coatings and gradient coatings, was briefly described. Several new coatings popular at present were summarized: diamond coatings, diamond-like carbon coatings, cubic boron nitride coatings and carbon nitride coatings. Finally, the development direction of cemented carbide tool coatings in the future was presented.