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

Abstract

The paper is dedicated to the life 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 × 1017 cm−2, 4 × 1017 cm−2 and 5 × 1017 cm−2 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 greater 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.

Removing Auxetic Properties in f.c.c. Hard Sphere Crystals by Orthogonal Nanochannels with Hard Spheres of Another Diameter

“…One of such techniques is the ion implantation, a process that is widely used in many areas, e.g., semiconductor device fabrication or materials sciences in general [ 53 , 54 ]. It has recently been shown that implanting nitrogen ions into a cemented tungsten carbide guide pads for deep-hole drilling applications can substantially increase their hardness and durability [ 55 ]. These are also characteristic features of auxetic materials; however, the complicated mechanisms behind the changes of tribological, mechanical, and elastic properties of ion-implanted materials are not yet fully understood and explained.…”

Effect of Nitrogen Ion Implantation on the Cavitation Erosion Resistance and Cobalt-Based Solid Solution Phase Transformations of HIPed Stellite 6

“…Even so, these processes are mostly applied for increasing stellites tribological, corrosion or erosion resistance, it should be emphasised that limited papers focus on the effect of stellites treatment on their CE resistance. Especially, ion implantation is one of the most promising anti-wear processes, which has a positive effect in a range of engineering applications such as corrosive [ 27 ] and sliding wear [ 26 , 28 ] performance of different metallic surfaces. Moreover, the investigation into the anti-cavitation application of different ion types and fluences into the metallic materials were discussed in the literature.…”

Effect of Nitrogen Ion Implantation on the Cavitation Erosion Resistance and Cobalt-Based Solid Solution Phase Transformations of HIPed Stellite 6

“…Even so, these processes are mostly applied for increasing stellites tribological, corrosion or erosion resistance, it should be emphasized that limited papers focus on the effect of stellites treatment on their CE resistance. Especially, ion implantation is one of the most promising anti-wear processes, which has a positive effect in the range of engineering applications such as corrosive [27] and sliding wear [26,28] performance of different metallic surfaces. Moreover, the investigation into the anti-cavitation application of different ion types and fluences into the metallic materials were discussed by the literature.…”