Formation mechanism for edge of disc cutter made of WC/Co cemented carbide

This study conducts edge-grinding tests on cemented carbide disc cutters and investigates quality changes in the edge under different edge-grinding depth. The results show that the height of lateral wear band of the disc cutter decreases with grinding depth, and the cutter edge is gradually sharpened. However, when the grinding depth exceeds the range (165 μm) of contact wear, a lateral wear band of 5 μm in height persists and the edge sharpness cannot be improved further, even by utilising a fine-grained grinding wheel with a small feed. Only by grinding the outer cylindrical and lateral surfaces of cutting samples simultaneously, the residual wear band in the edge is completely removed. The researchers find that the residual wear band in edge-grinding of the disc cutter is resulted from hard particle shedding caused by surface oxidation of cemented carbide. This is the result of the interaction of surface oxidation at normal temperatures and stress concentration on the cemented carbide.