The Single Pendulum Impact Scratch Test (SPIST) with high precision for measuring impact energy consumption during scratching has been developed. A new criterion for evaluating adhesion between coating and substrate has been suggested. Some super hard coating (TiN) deposited by physical vapor deposition and rather tough coating (Ni-P) prepared by electroless plating have been tested. The SPIST result of adhesion of TiN coating/substrate shows a good correspondence with that in the Acoustic Emission Monitoring Scratch Test (AEMST). The physical meaning of energy criterion from SPIST is more distinctive than that of the critical load from AEMST. The difficulty of weak or absent acoustic emission signal during the steady scratch test for evaluation of adhesion of tough coating/substrate could be overcome by SPIST and its result of Ni-P/1045 steel is also in consistence with that of Direct Pull-off test - a common method for evaluation of adhesion of plating or painting. (c) 2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.