RAZOR BLADE COATING

1 . Razor blade for a hand-held razor, the razor blade comprising a stainless steel razor blade substrate terminating in substrate edge portion, wherein the substrate edge portion has a continuously tapering geometry with two substrate sides converging towards a substrate edge; and wherein at least the substrate edge is provided with a hard coating comprising the elements titanium, boron, and carbon.

2 . The razor blade according to claim 1 , wherein an adhesion-promoting coating is deposited at least onto the substrate edge to provide a first coated substrate edge and the hard coating is deposited at least onto the first coated substrate edge.

3 . The razor blade according to claim 1 , wherein the hard coating comprises titanium carbides and titanium borides.

4 . The razor blade according to claim 1 , wherein the hard coating comprises at least about 70 at % of the elements titanium, boron, and carbon.

5 . The razor blade according to claim 1 , wherein between boron and titanium there is an atomic ratio in the hard coating is between about 2.3:1 and about 1.2:1.

6 . The razor blade according to claim 1 , wherein the hard coating comprises between about 2 and about 25 at % carbon.

7 . The razor blade according to claim 1 , wherein the hard coating is composed of a single layer comprising titanium, boron and carbon; or wherein the hard coating is composed of a plurality of sublayers, wherein a first set of sublayers comprises titanium and boron and a second set of sublayers comprises titanium and carbon.

8 . The razor blade according to claim 7 , wherein the plurality of sublayers forms an alternating arrangement of layers comprising titanium carbide and layers comprising titanium boride.

9 . The razor blade according to or claim 8 , wherein the plurality of sublayers comprises between about 3 and about 20 sublayers.

10 . The razor blade according to claim 1 , wherein the hard coating has a thickness that is between about 10 and about 500 nm.

11 . The razor blade according to claim 2 , wherein the adhesion-promoting coating comprises at least about 70 at %.

12 . The razor blade according to claim 2 , wherein the adhesion-promoting coating has a thickness that is between about 10 and about 100 nm.

13 . The razor blade according to claim 2 , wherein between the hard coating and the adhesion-promoting coating there is a ratio of thickness that is between about 20:1 and about 5:1.

14 . The razor blade according claim 1 , wherein the cross-section of a blade edge portion has a substantially symmetrical tapering geometry terminating in a blade tip, wherein the cross-section has a central longitudinal axis originating from the blade tip, and wherein the blade's edge portion has a thickness of between about 1.5 μm and about 2.4 μm measured at a distance of about 5 μm along the central longitudinal axis from the blade tip.

15 . A razor cartridge comprising one or more razor blades according to claim 1 .

16 . The razor blade according to claim 1 , wherein the hard coating comprises carbon being dispersed within a TiB 2 -based matrix.

17 . The razor blade according to claim 1 , wherein the hard coating comprises at least about 80% of the elements titanium, boron, and carbon, wherein an atomic ratio between boron and titanium in the hard coating is between about 2.1:1 and about 1.4:1, and wherein the hard coating comprises between about 4 and about 18 at % carbon.

18 . The razor blade according to claim 1 , wherein the hard coating comprises at least about 90% of the elements titanium, boron, and carbon, wherein an atomic ratio between boron and titanium in the hard coating is between about 2.0 and about 1.5:1, and wherein the hard coating comprises between about 5 and about 9 at % carbon.

19 . The razor blade according to claim 8 , wherein the plurality of sublayers comprises between about 4 and about 15 sublayers.

20 . The razor blade according to claim 2 , wherein the adhesion-promoting coating comprises at least about 90 at % Ti, Cr, or TiC.