The Wear Characteristics of WC/Co Micropunch

The wear characteristics of WC/Co micropunch (150 µm in diameter) in various processing periods were investigated. After the punching microhole test with Ti as substrate, the effect of punching numbers on the wear loss and surface morphology had been studied by confocal laser, scanning electron microscopy (SEM), energy dispersive X-ray analysis (EDX) etc. Results showed that in the initial micropunch processing, the wear of micropunch was significantly increased, and the dominant factors of the wear loss mainly relied on Co. With the increment of punching numbers, the wear of WC/Co micropunch was in the quasistable period with a little wear loss. When the punching number exceeded 1525, the wear of micropunch was increased distinctly with the wear loss of Co and WC both. Moreover, with the punching numbers increasing further, the dominant factors of the wear loss mainly relied on WC. Meanwhile, attributed to the wear of micropunch, the quality of microholes was decreased correspondingly.