Surface modification approaches for enhancing fracture and fatigue resistance of electrical discharge machined hardmetals

Abstract

Electrical discharge machining (EDM) provides an effective means of shaping hardmetals. However, it is also known that surface integrity of these materials may be affected by EDM, degrading their tribomechanical characteristics. This work focuses on assessing the use of two different surface modification routes: thermomechanical treatments (shot blasting, polishing and final high temperature annealing) and/or physical vapor deposition of hard coatings, for improving the fracture and fatigue strength of an EDM-shaped fine-grained hardmetal grade. In doing so, an optimal EDM’s surface finish variant and a diamond ground and polished one are used. Mechanical behavior is evaluated under four-point bending and fatigue characterization is given in terms of fatigue limit following the staircase method. Experimental results indicate that both approaches markedly decreases the lessening effect of EDM on the mechanical strength of hardmetals, although a complete fracture and fatigue strength retention is only achieved by combining both of them.