Surface coated cutting tool having hard coating layer exhibiting excellent chipping resistance

A surface coated cutting tool comprising:

• a tool body;
• and
• a hard coating layer provided on a surface of the tool body, wherein
• (a) the hard coating layer includes at least a complex nitride layer or a complex carbonitride layer of Ti and Al having an average layer thickness of 2.0 to 20.0 μm,
• (b) when the complex nitride layer or the complex carbonitride layer is represented by a composition formula:
• (Ti(1-x)Alx)(CyN(i-y)), an average content ratio xavg of Al with respect to a total amount of Ti and Al and an average content ratio yavg of C with respect to a total amount of C and N (where, each of xavg and yavg is an atomic ratio) each satisfy 0.60≤xavg≤0.95 and 0.00≤yavg≤0.05,
• (c) when observing a vertical cross section of each of the complex nitride layer or the complex carbonitride layer, an area ratio occupied by crystal grains having an NaCl-type face-centered cubic structure of a complex nitride or a complex carbonitride satisfies 90 area % or more,
• (d) when the complex nitride layer or the complex carbonitride layer is bisected into an upper layer side and a lower layer side in a layer thickness direction, in a region on the upper layer side, in a case where a crystal grain size d of each of the crystal grains having the NaCl-type face-centered cubic structure is obtained, crystal grains having the crystal grain size d of 0.01 μm<d≤0.20 μm exist in an area ratio of 10 to 40 area % with respect to an entire area of the complex nitride layer or the complex carbonitride layer in the region on the upper layer side, and
• (e) in the region on the bisected upper layer side, an average value L(dsum) of a maximum length L in a direction parallel to the surface of the tool body in each region in which the crystal grains having the NaCl-type face-centered cubic structure and each crystal grain size d of 0.01 μm<d≤0.20 μm are adjacent and connected to each other satisfies L(dsum)≤5.0 μm.