Ti microholes potential for biomedical application punched by 75WC/25Co micropunch

Due to the trend of miniaturization, the specific advantages of metal forming, especially for the high productivity and the high material utilization, cannot be exploited to the same extent in the field of electronics production as in conventional metal forming. Because of this, the competition with less productive and environmentally more polluting technologies, such as chemical etching, increases. Micropunching is extremely suitable for mass production of micro features, and the quality of the relevant punched microholes is definitely attraction to its successful application. Herein effect of cobalt on the morphology of microhole formed by punching with WC/Co micropunches was investigated. The morphology variation of the micropunched holes at different cobalt volumes were measured by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), energy dispersive spectrometer (EDS) and confocal laser. Results reveal that due to the optimal joint-contribution of WC and Co, the morphology of the microholes punched by micropunches with 75%WC+25% Co not only satisfies with the practical requirements, but also its using life is at the highest level among the three types of micropunches. Moreover, for 75WC/25Co micropunch, the serious wear of micropunch occurs with the wear loss of Co and WC both when the punching number exceeds 1525. With the punching numbers further increment, the dominant factors of the wear loss would mainly rely on the easily peeled off WC due to the serious loss of Co.