coated is a working roller for a rolling mill in this case it is expedient to incorporate particles which are much harder than the layer material in the coating it is thereby possible even with progressive removal of the coating by virtue of the particles which protrude out of the surface 14 to produce a high surface roughness which in the case of cold rolling is needed for transferring tensile forces from the roller to the sheet metal to be rolled in order to coat the working roller the latter is rotated in the direction of the arrow indicated the device 11 is moved toward the surface 14 of the working roller from the side with a sponge being used as the carrier 12 the first conduit system 21 feeds the carrier with the coating electrolyte with excess electrolyte being discharged into the collection container 17 in addition a dispersion containing the particles to be incorporated is sprayed onto the surface 14 by the second conduit system 22 via the nozzle 30 taking into account the direction of rotation of the working roller it becomes clear on account of the relative movement between the working roller and the carrier with the transfer surface 12 b that the dispersion with the particles is applied to the surface 14 before the coating.