Energy-efficient physical vapor deposition of dense and hard Ti-Al-W-N coatings deposited under industrial conditions

•(Ti1-yAly)1-xWxN coatings are grown by W-HiPIMS/TiAl-DCMS under industrial conditions.•Conventional resistive heating can be replaced by high-mass metal ion irradiation.•The densification of the coatings controlled by the W ion energy and W ion dose per deposited metal atom.•The energy consumption during the pre-heating and coating stage is lowered by 70 % and 62 %, respectively.