PURPOSE: To form thin films having excellent hardness and wear resistance at a low cost without using high-frequency electric power by subjecting a substrate to be worked to film formation by a sputtering CVD apparatus consisting of an ion plating device and co-sputtering devices in a vacuum chamber.

CONSTITUTION: A gaseous mixture composed of Ar and hydrocarbon is supplied into a vacuum coating chamber 2 and targets 31 as the cathodes in the plural co-sputtering devices 3 are sputtered with Ar ions and heating and evaporation are executed by irradiation the evaporation material 17 in a crucible 9 with an electron beam 30. The particles of the targets 31 and the particles of the evaporation material 17 which are ionized by the thermions from the filament 54 of the ion plating device 4 are bombarded against the surface 57 of the work 42 to form the thin films of the carbide having the excellent hardness and wear resistance at a low cost by the target materials 31, the evaporation material 17 and the gaseous hydrocarbon supplied into the vacuum chamber 2.