Abstract. Modern requirements for technologies and mechanical engineering products necessitate the creation of new technological methods for processing materials and the development of appropriate technical means. Promising are environmentally friendly vacuum, ion, beam and photonic processes for obtaining materials, applying various coatings, and creating multilayer structures. An urgent scientific and technical problem is the creation of devices and methods for processing materials, vacuum devices for producing composite materials and forming coatings. It is known that significant parameters of materials are determined by the properties of their surface layers, therefore surface treatment technology, including the application of coatings and the creation of complex structures based on them, is of great importance. Vacuum-thermal and plasma surface treatment processes are promising in this regard.

Key words: vacuum coatings, deposition, evaporation, condensation, magnetron sputtering.