Effects of deep cryogenic treatment on WC-Co cutter performances in milling of superalloy GH536

GH536 has been widely employed as one kind of high-performance materials; however, the poor machinability of GH536 especially substantial tool wear can still be considered as a problem. On the contrary, deep cryogenic treatment can be considered as an effective heat treatment to improve the milling cutter performances. Considering few studies that investigated the deep cryogenic treatment of the WC-Co cutters, this article experimentally investigated the effects of deep cryogenic treatment on WC-Co cutter performances in milling of superalloy GH536. The detailed discussion in terms of the microhardness before milling, the cutting forces during milling, and the tool wear and the machined surface quality after milling operation were performed based on the in-depth analysis of the experimental result comparison between the deep cryogenic treatment and the conventional tools. Some key findings were given in the end to conclude this work.