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Abstract

For coating substrates (17,18,20,21,22) in a vacuum-coating chamber (2) the substrates are introduced by an air lock into the coating chamber (2) and moved along a transport path in front of the coating sources (50a,b,c,d) producing a coating cloud. To this end, the substrates (17,18,20,21,22) are led past the coating sources (50a,b,c,d) by means of holding devices (24) arranged movably on a transport belt (9) during at least two successive coating phases. During the one coating phase, the substrates (17,18,20,21,22) are oriented along one transport direction T.sub.3 oriented towards the coating sources (50a,b,c,d) such that essentially the substrate bottom of the cylindrical substrate is coated. During the subsequent second coating phase, the substrates are oriented in front of the coating sources (50a,b,c,d) in a direction T.sub.4 opposite the transport direction T.sub.3, wherein the substrates (17,18,20,21,22) are oriented such that essentially the cylindrical side surface is coated. By this method, the substrates (17,18,20,21,22) are coated successively in an identical manner and independently of possible substrate positions with relation to the coating sources (50a,b,c,d) during the coating process. Bottle-shaped containers, in particular, plastic bottles are vapor-coated with a gas- or fluid-barrier layer using the method. The coating sources (50a,b,c,d) include thermal vaporizers and/or plasma cathode sputter sources.

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