Improved adhesion of diamond coating on cobalt-cemented tungsten carbide hardmetal by using pulsed-UV-laser substrate surface pretreatment

Pulsed-UV-laser surface ablation has been applied in substrate pretreatment in order to obtain good adhesion of diamond coating grown on cobalt-cemented tungsten carbide hardmetal. The dependence of diamond coating's adhesion on different shots of pulsed-UV-laser substrate pretreatment has been studied experimentally. The results were compared with diamond coating deposited by using traditional acid-etching substrate pretreatment. It was shown that adhesion of diamond coating grown on tungsten carbide hardmetal has been greatly improved by using pulsed-UV-laser substrate pretreatment. The corresponding laser pretreatment condition for the optimal adhesion of diamond coatings was finally obtained. It has been demonstrated that pulsed-UV-laser substrate pretreatment should be a feasible and effective method for improving adhesion of diamond coating on cobalt-cemented tungsten carbide hardmetal. It is the characteristic surface morphology produced by pulsed-UV-laser surface ablation that subsequently results in this improved adhesion of diamond coating grown on tungsten carbide hardmetal. The number of laser shots being used in substrate pretreatment has a great influence to the adhesion of diamond coating deposited on tungsten carbide hardmetal. One should always apply proper number of laser shots in pulsed-UV-laser substrate pretreatment when seeking for the optimal adhesion of diamond coating on tungsten carbide hardmetal. In this work, the corresponding number of laser shots for the optimal adhesion of diamond coating has found to be 300 laser shots. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.