Interactive · vendor-neutral · every value cited
PVD coatings, compared honestly.
PVD (physical vapor deposition) coatings are the few-micron ceramic films that make a cutting tool or die last — TiN, TiAlN, AlCrN, CrN, ZrN, DLC. Most comparisons online are a vendor selling one of them. This one isn't: pick a coating and see how its hardness, heat limit, and friction actually stack up — as ranges, because real coatings vary by process and supplier, with every number traced to a cited source.
Titanium Nitride
TiN · First-generation monolayer PVD hard coating (gold-colored benchmark)
Thickness
1–5 um
Deposition temp
400–500 C
Typically chosen for
- Wear protection on cutting tools (drills, taps, milling cutters, inserts)
- Forming, stamping and fine-blanking tooling
- Plastic injection molding components
- Decorative gold finish and medical/food-contact parts (biocompatible, inert)
These are general process properties for understanding tradeoffs — not a specification for your application. Real selection needs a coating house with your substrate, geometry, and duty data. Values are ranges because real coatings vary by process and supplier; the bright marker is the typical value, the band is the published spread.
How to read this
Why ranges, not single numbers
If a page tells you "TiN is 2,300 HV," be skeptical. The same coating measures anywhere from ~2,000 to ~3,000 HV depending on the deposition method and the test load. A single confident number, in this field, is usually a wrong number. So each metric here shows a bright marker at the typical value sitting on a lighter band spanning the published spread — the uncertainty is the point, not a flaw.
Each value also carries a confidence flag and its sources. Open Show the data notes & sources on any coating to see exactly where every number came from, including where sources disagree. Nothing here claims more certainty than the evidence supports.
The short version
When each coating wins
TiN is the baseline — proven, cheap, the gold one. You move off it when the job gets hot or sticky. For dry and high-speed cutting where heat is the enemy, TiAlN and especially AlCrN hold hardness to far higher temperatures. For galling, forming, and sliding wear where you want the surface slick, DLC drops friction to a fraction of the nitrides — at the cost of a much lower temperature ceiling. CrN trades peak hardness for toughness and corrosion resistance; ZrN earns its place on non-ferrous and medical work.
This explains the tradeoffs so you can ask better questions — it is not a spec for your tool. Which coating actually fits your substrate, geometry, and duty cycle needs a coating house with your application data.
Stuck on a real part?
Talk to a specialist
If you've got a tool that's failing and you're not sure which surface treatment fits, tell us what's happening. A real person — not a bot — will point you in the right direction. No spec gets quoted from a web form; this just starts the conversation.