An Analysis of the Morphology Evolution of YG8 Cemented Carbide by Laser Ablation in the Liquid Phase

Abstract

To explore the influence of the number of laser ablations on the shape, geometry, and taper of the pitting structure by laser ablation in the liquid phase, three-dimensional confocal microscopy was used to quantitatively characterize the shape of the surface dotting texture of YG8 cemented carbide and analyze the evolution of the morphology based on the liquid-assisted laser ablation test. The results show that the surface pitting structure of YG8 cemented carbide evolves from a micro-convexity to a crater with the increase in the number of laser ablations, and the bottom of the crater produces a convexity after 7 ablations, the shape of the crater evolves to a trapezoidal shape after 13 ablations, and the shape is stable. The size of the dot texture increases with the number of laser ablations and reaches a maximum value of 396 μm in diameter and 149 μm in depth at the 10th and 12th ablations, respectively. The taper of the dot texture showed a trend of decreasing, increasing, and then decreasing with the increase in the number of laser ablations, and the taper was stable with more than seven ablations. This study lays a theoretical foundation for the control of the dot texture morphology on the surface of YG8 cemented carbide by laser ablation in a liquid-phase environment.