Acoustic emission (AE) sensor was used to evaluate the wear-life of CrN-coated steel disks with 1 $mu extrm{m}$ and 4 $mu extrm{m}$ coating thickness. The relationship between Af and friction signal from scratch test and sliding test was investigated. The first spatting of CrN film was detected by AR signals in the early stage of coating failures, and overall failures by friction signals. Therefore, the conservative design for coating-life should be done using the results of AE signals. Using the percent contact load, the ratio of sliding normal load to the critical scratch load and the number of cycles to failure was measured to predict the wear-life of CrN film. On the wear-life dia-gram the percent contact loads and the number of cycles to failure showed a good linear relationship on the log coordinate. As the load percentage was decreased, the diagram showed that the wear-limits, at which the coated steels survived more than 35,000 cycles, were about 4∼5% of the critical scratch loads.