Materials Science & Engineering
ZHANG Yue, ZHENG Yu, HE Xingchi, CHEN Fei, DONG Fuyu
[Objective] Cemented carbides are a class of alloy prepared by high-temperature sintering in which micron-scale refractory metal compound (WC, TaC, TiC, and NbC) powder is taken as the hard phase and the transition metal (Co, Fe, and Ni) powder as the sintering bonding phase. They are widely used in tool materials and other industrial fields, known as “industrial teeth”, due to their high hardness, high strength, wear resistance, corrosion resistance, and good high temperature performance. With the development of China′s strategic emerging industries, aerospace, marine engineering, CNC machine tools, rail transit, nuclear engineering, new energy, advanced medical equipment, environmentally-friendly and energy-saving equipment, and other high-end manufacturing industries have an increasing demand for high-performance and high-stability tool materials. Tool performance can be further enhanced by the use of coating and other surface treatment methods to coat the solid lubricant on the tool surface, or the addition of the solid lubricant as an additive to the tool material matrix, which leverages the advantage of high temperature stability of solid lubricants to form a continuous solid lubrication layer on the service tool surface. [Methods] In this study, spherical composite powder was prepared by ball milling using WC-Co cemented carbide powder (particle size 15-45 μm) as wear-resistant component and graphite powder (particle size 80-200 μm) as the solid lubricant. The composite powder was deposited to be graphite/WC-Co coating by plasma spraying process. A high current pulsed electron beam (energy density 27 keV, pulse interval 15 s) was used for irradiation treatment, with number of irradiation times set as 1, 10, 20, and 30. The microstructure and mechanical properties after treatment were observed. [Results] After treatment with the high current pulsed electron beam, the surface of the remelted coating is compact and flat, with a modified layer thickness reaching 294 μm, the highest surface hardness can reach 800 HV, an average friction coefficient as low as 0.10. The microstructure analysis shows that nano-sized WC phase, Co3W9C4 phase, and diamond-like structure are formed on the surface of the coating after high current pulsed electron beam irradiation, which greatly improves the microhardness of the coating surface. The bulk graphite on the surface of the coating is dissolved by the electron beam and then re-precipitates into elliptic graphite. At the same time, the graphite is separated into graphene sheets under the action of the electron beam, which are uniformly covered on the surface of the coating and effectively reduce the friction coefficient of the coating surface. Part of the graphite is transformed into a diamond structure, which effectively improves the surface hardness of the coating. [Conclusion] In this study, a two-step technology of thermal spraying deposition and high current pulsed electron beam modification was used to prepare a uniform, compact, and fine WC-Co alloy, which induced the composite carbon structure of spherical graphite, graphene, and diamond, effectively improving the hardness of the coating and reducing the friction coefficient of the surface. The prepared nano-composite self-lubricating coating provides a new material for the high-end equipment manufacturing tool industry.