(Ti(1-x)AlxN) coated drill is a new product of Mitsubishi Co.Its peculiarities are illustrated briefly in the technical description provided by the manufacturer as follows:after drilling 2000 holes (20 mm in diameter) of stainless steel (SUS340) without serious wear; strengthened wearability and erosion resistance of the physical vapor deposited coating material; lowered stickiness between the flute and the chip.Aimed at providing enough information for in-process measurement and control,systematical industrial drilling test of AISI 1045 steel workpiece is performed to investigate cutting behavior of this kind of drill and chemical stability of the coating material.This paper details the experiment procedure and results in the following aspects:cutting force and torque,temperature,and hole quality under different cutting conditions; flank wear phenomena and feature at different wear stage; structural characterization of the coating material employing X-ray diffraction (XRD) and scanning electronic microscope (SEM).It is noticeable that the coating material exhibits solid lubricant effect to improve the tribological interaction between the drill and the workpiece and to facilitate chip evacuation.Excellent chemical stability of the coating material is demonstrated by the material composition.As an overall assessment,lifetime of the coated drill is 1.5 times higher than that of the non-coated ones.