<p>AlCrBN coatings with different adhesion layers (C1 with Cr adhesion layers, C2 with CrN adhesion layers and C3 with Cr+CrN adhesion layers) were fabricated. Both indentation and scratch experiments were conducted to investigate the effects of different adhesion layers on the adhesion. To verify the effects of various adhesion layers, the stress distribution at the interfaces between the top working layers, adhesion layers and substrate was investigated by finite element analysis (FEA). The C2 coating showed less indentation adhesion (HF-6) than the C1 (HF-1) and C3 (HF-1) coatings. Scratch experiments showed similar results with a lower scratch adhesion (<i>L</i>_<i>c</i>2) of 14 N for C2 coatings and a higher scratch adhesion for the C1 (<i>L</i>_<i>c</i>2 of 48 N) and C3 (<i>L</i>_<i>c</i>2 of 57 N) coatings. FEA results also confirmed that the principal stress distributions at interfaces of the coating/substrate were in compressive stress state for C1 and C3 coatings, whereas a tensile stress prevailed on the C2 coating, and the maximum shear stress of about 2900&#xa0;MPa at the interfaces was also found for C2 coating compared to those of 1550&#xa0;MPa for the C1 and C3 coatings. For the scratch experiment, higher shear stress at the interfaces of the top working layer/adhesion layer than that on the adhesion layer/substrate was found for the C1 and C3 coatings, leading to the coating peeling from the adhesion layers. However, a similar maximum shear tensile stress was generated at the interfaces (7900&#xa0;MPa) of top working coatings/adhesion layer and at the interfaces (7800&#xa0;MPa) of coating and substrate, which resulted in the coating peeling from the substrate for the C2 coating. Compared with C1 and C3 coatings, the C2 coating also had a poor wear resistance of 18.9 × 10⁻¹⁵ m³/N&#xa0;m, arising from its poor indentation adhesion and scratch adhesion.</p>