A method of producing coated ultra-hard
abrasive material, in particular coated
diamond and CBN material. In a first step, an element capable of forming (singly or in combination) carbides, nitrides or borides to the surface(s) of the
abrasive material is is applied using a hot
coating process. At least one outer layer of a
coating material selected from the group comprising transition metals,
carbide,
nitride,
boride,
oxide and carbonitride forming metals,
metal carbides,
metal nitrides,
metal borides, metal oxides and metal carbonitrides, boronitrides and borocarbonitrides is applied over the inner layer by physical
vapour deposition or chemical
vapour deposition. Typically the inner layer elements come from groups IVa, Va, VIa, IIIb and IVb of the
periodic table and include, for example,
vanadium,
molybdenum,
tantalum,
indium,
zirconium,
niobium,
tungsten,
aluminium,
boron and
silicon. The outer
coating is preferably applied by reactive
sputtering where a
reactive gas is admitted to the
sputtering chamber, resulting in the deposition of a compound of the
reactive gas and the element being sputtered.