Laser-induced oxidation assisted micro milling of high aspect ratio microgroove on WC-Co cemented carbide

Severe tool wear and poor surface quality are the main problems during micro machining of cemented carbide. In this work, an innovative hybrid process of laser-induced oxidation assisted micro milling (LOMM) was proposed to solve the problems. A nanosecond laser was utilized to induce oxidation of the WC-20%Co material, producing loose oxide which was easy to remove. The micro machinability of the material was improved by laser-induced oxidation. The oxidation mechanisms of cemented carbide were studied. A microgroove with a depth of 2.5 mm and aspect ratio of 5 was fabricated successfully. The milling force, surface quality and tool wear mechanisms were investigated. For comparison, a microgroove was also fabricated with conventional micro milling (COMM) using identical milling parameters. Results revealed that in LOMM the milling force and tool wear rate were extremely low during removing the oxide. The machined surface quality and dimensional accuracy achieved by LOMM were superior to those obtained by COMM. The surface roughness S_a of the microgroove bottom reached 88 nm in LOMM, while the cross-sectional geometry of the microgroove was a trapezoid. Perpendicularity of the microgroove sidewall machined by LOMM was better than that by COMM. The tool wear forms in LOMM were coating spalling and slight tool nose breakage. Compared with COMM, the tool life in LOMM was prolonged significantly. It indicates that the proposed hybrid process is an effective and efficient way to fabricate high aspect ratio micro-features with high dimensional accuracy.