Wear Resistance Improvement of Cemented Tungsten Carbide Deep-Hole Drills after Ion Implantation

• Published in: Materials Vol. 14; no. 2; p. 239
• Main Authors: Morozow, Dmitrij, Barlak, Marek, Werner, Zbigniew, Pisarek, Marcin, Konarski, Piotr, Zagórski, Jerzy, Rucki, Mirosław, Chałko, Leszek, Łagodziński, Marek, Narojczyk, Jakub, Krzysiak, Zbigniew, Caban, Jacek
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Switzerland MDPI AG 06-01-2021; MDPI
• Subjects: Carbon; Cemented carbides; Chemical vapor deposition; Cobalt; Drilling; Durability; Ion implantation; Mechanical properties; Nitrogen; Oxidation; Photoelectrons; Prolongation; Secondary ion mass spectrometry; Spectrum analysis; Thickness; Tungsten carbide; Wear resistance; X ray photoelectron spectroscopy; United States > US; Germany; cemented tungsten carbide; guide pads; deep-hole drilling; tools; ion implantation
• ISSN: 1996-1944; 1996-1944
• DOI: 10.3390/ma14020239

The paper is dedicated to the lifetime prolongation of the tools designed for deep-hole drilling. Among available methods, an ion implantation process was used to improve the durability of tungsten carbide (WC)-Co guide pads. Nitrogen fluencies of 3 × 10
cm
, 4 × 10
cm
and 5 × 10
cm
were applied, and scanning electron microscope (SEM) observations, energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDS) analyses, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and Secondary Ion Mass Spectrometry (SIMS) measurements were performed for both nonimplanted and implanted tools. The durability tests of nonimplanted and the modified tools were performed in industrial conditions. The durability of implanted guide pads was above 2.5 times more than nonimplanted ones in the best case, presumably due to the presence of a carbon-rich layer and extremely hard tungsten nitrides. The achieved effect may be attributed to the dissociation of tungsten carbide phase and to the lubrication effect. The latter was due to the presence of pure carbon layer with a thickness of a few dozen nanometers. Notably, this layer was formed at a temperature of 200 °C, much smaller than in previously reported research, which makes the findings even more valuable from economic and environmental perspectives.