Ultraprecision magnetorheological electrochemical compound polishing for WC-Co cemented carbide employing new array magnetic field and textured tool

The crucial task of producing high-quality machined surfaces in this field is faced by WC-Co cemented carbide, whose hardness and wear resistance greatly exceed those of traditional materials. This work develops a novel magneto-electrochemical hybrid polishing process by creatively combining electrochemical and magnetorheological polishing. This study presents textured surface on the slurry carrier and Halbach array magnetic field to greatly enhance material removal efficiency and surface quality in comparison to conventional polishing techniques. The performance of the employed magnetic fields was studied at first by simulation. The characteristic of the polishing tool was then learned by experiments, including the appearance and dynamic behavior of different polishing pads, the electrolytic performance with different polishing pads, and the polishing results with/without textured surface. According to experimental results, surface roughness was decreased from an initial S a 110 nm to S a 4 nm within 5 mins polishing and material removal depth of 4.1 μm. Then, the comparation of polishing performance, including conventional magnetorheological polishing, magneto-chemical polishing and magneto-electrochemical polishing, and the element composition of remained surface products were conducted. Finally, the polishing mechanism was claimed. The results confirmed that the proposed method has a prominent advantage on the improvement of not only surface quality but also material removal efficiency on the WC-Co cemented carbide. In addition to showing the great potential of magneto-electrochemical hybrid polishing for cemented carbides, this study offers a workable way to effectively finish the nanoscale surface of brittle-hard materials.