Surface coated cutting tool

A surface coated cutting tool comprising:

• a tool body made of any one of tungsten carbide-based cemented carbide, titanium carbonitride-based cermet, and cubic boron nitride-based ultra-high pressure sintered material;
• and
• a hard coating layer formed on a surface of the body, wherein
• (a) the hard coating layer comprises at least a Ti, Al and Me complex nitride or carbonitride layer having an average layer thickness of 1 μm to 20 μm, Me being an element selected from Si, Zr, B, V, and Cr,
• in a case where a composition of the complex nitride or carbonitride layer is expressed by a composition formula:
• (Ti1-x-yAlxMey)(CzN1-z), an average content ratio Xavg, which is a ratio of Al to a total amount of Ti, Al and Me in the complex nitride or carbonitride layer;
• an average content ratio Yavg, which is a ratio of Me to the total amount of Ti, Al and Me in the complex nitride or carbonitride layer;
• and an average content ratio Zavg, which is a ratio of C to a total amount of C and N, satisfy 0.60≦Xavg, 0.005≦Yavg≦0.10, 0≦Zavg≦0.005, and 0.605≦Xavg+Yavg≦0.95, provided that each of x, y and z is in atomic ratio,
• (b) the complex nitride or carbonitride layer includes at least a phase of Ti, Al and Me complex nitride or carbonitride having a NaCl type face-centered cubic structure,
• (c) when crystal orientations of crystal grains of the Ti, Al and Me complex nitride or carbonitride having the NaCl type face-centered cubic structure in the complex nitride or carbonitride layer are analyzed from a vertical cross sectional direction with an electron beam backward scattering diffraction device, inclined angles of normal lines of {110} planes, which are crystal planes of the crystal grains, relative to an direction of a normal line of the surface of the body are measured, and an inclined angle frequency distribution is obtained by tallying frequencies present in each section after dividing inclined angles into sections in every 0.25° pitch in a range of 0 to 45° relative to the direction of the normal line among the inclined angles,
• a highest peak is present in an inclined angle section in a range of 0° to 12°, a ratio of a sum of frequencies in the range of 0° to 12° to an overall frequency in the inclined angle frequency distribution is 35% or more,
• (d) a periodic content ratio change of Ti, Al and Me in the composition formula:
• (Ti1-x-yAlxMey)(CzN1-z) exists in the crystal grains of the Ti, Al and Me complex nitride or carbonitride having the NaCl type face-centered cubic structure,
• a difference Δx between Xmax and Xmin is 0.03 to 0.25, Xmax and Xmin being an average value of local maximums of the periodically fluctuating Al content x and an average value of local minimums of the periodically fluctuating Al content x, respectively, and
• (e) a period along the direction of the normal line of the surface of the body is 3 nm to 100 nm in the crystal grains, in which the periodic content ratio change of Ti, Al and Me exists, having the NaCl type face-centered cubic structure in the complex nitride or carbonitride layer.