Effect of Surface Pre-Treatment on the Adhesion between HiPIMS Thick Cu:CuCNx Coating and WC-Co Shim

High-power impulse magnetron-sputtering thick metal/carbon–nitride-doped metal-matrix multilayer nano-composite coating can be applied to cutting-tool holder components to improve cutting insert’s life. One of the challenges of such an add-on solution is the poor adhesion between the thick coating and the hard alloy substrate, such as WC-Co shim. This work presents a study on WC-Co substrate surface preparation methods for HiPIMS coating and its adhesion improvement. Three mechanical surface pretreatment methods were investigated: machining (grinding), diamond polishing, and grit blasting. White-light interferometry was used for substrate surface texture measurement before and after pretreatment. It was demonstrated that, compared to machining and diamond polishing, grit blasting can significantly improve the interface adhesion between the ~200 µm-thick Cu:CuCNx coating and WC-Co shim. Grit blasting was also found to be beneficial for improving the cutting insert’s life in the external turning process. In turning tests, the coating lifetime for grit-blasted shim was more than 90 min, whereas the coating lifetimes for machined shim (conventional shim) and diamond-polished shim were ~85 min and ~70 min, respectively. Further, by comparing the HiPIMS gradient chromium pre-layer between the coating and substrate for the different shims, the study also explained that the quasi-isotropic surface texture of grit-blasted shim is more advantageous for coating–substrate interface adhesion.