Coated article having yttrium-containing coatings applied by physical vapor deposition and method for making the same

A coated article comprising:

• a substrate;
• a coating scheme;
• the coating scheme comprising a PVD coating region applied by physical vapor deposition wherein the coating region containing titanium and aluminum and yttrium and nitrogen and optionally one or more elements selected from the group consisting of zirconium, hafnium, vanadium, niobium, tantalum, chromium, molybdenum, tungsten and silicon;
• and
• wherein the sum of the aluminum and yttrium contents being between about 25 atomic percent and about 45 atomic percent of the sum of the titanium, the aluminum, the yttrium and the other elements;
• the yttrium content being between about 0.5 atomic percent and about 5 atomic percent of the sum of the titanium, the aluminum, the yttrium and the other elements;
• the titanium content being greater than the content of any one of the aluminum, the yttrium and the other elements;
• and the PVD coating region having a hardness greater than or equal to about 27 GPa as measured by a nanoindentation technique per ISO 14577-1:2002 standard procedure with an indentation depth equal to 0.25 microns.

A coated article comprising:

• a substrate;
• a coating scheme;
• the coating scheme comprising a PVD coating region applied by physical vapor deposition wherein the coating region containing titanium and aluminum and yttrium and nitrogen and optionally one or more elements selected from the group consisting of zirconium, hafnium, vanadium, niobium, tantalum, chromium, molybdenum, tungsten and silicon;
• and
• wherein the sum of the aluminum and yttrium contents being between about 10 atomic percent and about 15 atomic percent of the sum of the aluminum, the yttrium, the titanium, and the other elements;
• and the PVD coating region having a hardness greater than or equal to about 33 GPa as measured by a nanoindentation technique per ISO 14577-1:2002 standard procedure with an indentation depth equal to 0.25 microns.