Structural characteristics of ZrC/Ni-UDD coatings deposited on a tungsten carbide cutting tool

Abstract

Transition metals nitride and carbide hard coatings have been applied to protect cutting tools against damage in various industrial fields. The tungsten carbide (WC) ligated with cobalt is one of the modern solutions for cutting tools The hard coatings possess attractive properties, sush as greater wear resistance, and chemical stability. However, some traditional hard ceramics, such as nitrides, carbides, borides, and oxides (TiAlN, TiC, TiB2, etс.) do not have the capability to retain their properties under heavy cutting conditions. The life time of carbide tools can be considerably improved by the nanostructured multilayers coatings such as TiCN, TiCrN, AlCrN, CrZrN, etc. synthesized by the physical vapor deposition (PVD) process, and are found to possess superior mechanical properties [1, 2]. The use of ultradisperse diamonds (UDD), obtained by detonation of explosives, as a composite in electrochemical and chemical metal-diamond coatings also leads to an increase in their wear resistance, significant adhesion, and a significant decrease of the friction coefficient [3]. Treatment of hard alloy knives with the combined electroplating and PVD methods proved to provide increase of durability period of the ZrN-Ni-Co-coated cutting tools for laminated chipboard milling [4]. In this work, a cathode arc evaporation physical vapor deposition (CAE-PVD) and electroplating processes were used for the deposition of ZrC/Ni-UDD coating on the tungsten carbide cutting inserts. The microstructure, phase and elemental composition of the ZrC/Ni-UDD coating are studied and reported.