Fabrication and tribological performance of a laser-textured hardmetal guiding stone for honing processes

Abstract

Honing is often implemented as surface finish process by improving geometrical and form precision of workpieces. Guiding stones, usually made of hard materials with requirement of excellent tribological properties, play a key role as a supporting part in the honing tool. In this paper, cemented carbides are intended for guiding application as substitute of diamond or CBN composites. Innovative surface textures, namely crossing-line patterns and dimple arrays, are fabricated by means of short pulse laser on a cemented tungsten carbide (hardmetal) grade. Implementation of these processing conditions yields satisfactory geometrical accuracy. The cemented carbide stones patterned by laser together with a traditional diamond guiding stone were tested on a lubricated pin-on-disc tribometer. Both cross-line patterns or dimple arrays are found to improve frictional conditions compared to the traditional guiding stone, but the former are more favorable to build up a stable sliding scenario with minimized friction than the latter. Pattern density has a more significant impact on friction, diminishing in the case of dimple arrays.