Investigation on the surface formation mechanism in micro milling of cemented carbide

Cemented carbide is widely applied in optical glass molding process due to its excellent properties. The surface quality of cemented carbide mold is directly related with the glass element quality, mold life and production cost. In this paper, micro milling experiments were conducted on cemented carbide to investigate the surface formation mechanism. The surface morphology characteristics of different material removal modes were compared. Both the surface formation mechanism and damage behavior during micro milling process were analyzed in detail. The machining parameters selection strategy was suggested to obtain the high material removal rate and smooth surface quality. The surface quality was found to be less affected by the machining parameters when cemented carbide is removed with ductile mode than brittle mode.