Experimental study of the diamond turning characteristics of tungsten carbide (Co 0.5%) when using a chamfered diamond bite

• Published in: Journal of the Korean Physical Society Vol. 61; no. 9; pp. 1390 - 1394
• Main Authors: Kim, Min Jae, Lee, June Key, Hwang, Yeon, Cha, Du Hwan, Kim, Hye Jeong, Kim, Jeong Ho
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Seoul The Korean Physical Society 01.11.2012; 한국물리학회
• Subjects: Mathematical and Computational Physics; Particle and Nuclear Physics; Physics; Physics and Astronomy; Theoretical; 물리학; Tungsten carbide; Surface roughness (Ra); Chamfered bite; Ultra-precision turning
• ISSN: 0374-4884; 1976-8524
• DOI: 10.3938/jkps.61.1390

Tungsten carbide (WC) is a widely used as a mold material for fabrication of glass lens because of its superior properties. Due to its extremely high hardness (R c > 90), an abrasive machining process, although unproductive and expensive, is used to fabricate the mold. In this research, the authors investigated the machining possibility of tungsten carbide by single-point diamond turning (SPDT) for fabricating high-quality optical surfaces directly. A finite element analysis (FEA) was carried out in order to investigate the effects of the chamfered length on the cutting forces and the strain rate of single-crystal diamond tools. The obtained FEA results showed that a smaller chamfered length decreased the bite strain rate. The performance characteristics in terms of surface roughness (R a ) and tool wear (VB max ) of a conventional bite and a chamfered bite under same machining conditions were studied, the results were compared. Experimental results suggest that the chamfered bite wased a better performance than the conventional bite in terms of tool wear resistance. The WC surface machined by using the chamfered bite showed a 2.26 nm roughness (R a ), which is suitable for the fabrication of glass lenses.