Preparation and performance study of electroplated Ni–W/diamond ultrathin dicing blades

In this study, Ni–W/diamond ultrathin dicing blades with various tungsten contents were fabricated using a composite electrodeposition technique by adding different concentrations of sodium tungstate to a nickel sulfamate plating solution utilizing a self-developed cathodic autorotating plating apparatus. The results showed that the tungsten content in the dicing blades increased, the deposition rate accelerated, the distribution uniformity of the diamond particles improved, and the mechanical properties were noticeably enhanced with an increase in the sodium tungsten concentration in the plating solution. The performance of the dicing blade reached its peak at a sodium tungstate concentration of 6 g/L. At this point, the diamond content in the Ni–W/diamond dicing blade was higher and more uniformly distributed; the base metal of the dicing blade, a Ni–W alloy, increased in hardness by 47% and in Young's modulus by 26.8% when compared to Ni; the dicing blade's microhardness reached a maximum of 12.4 GPa, an increase of 49.4% over Ni/diamond dicing blades. The average friction coefficient and wear of the dicing blades decreased by 23.4% and 46.5% respectively. The cutting test results also showed that all aspects of the cutting performance of the dicing blade were greatly improved, with the deviation coefficient of Ni–W/diamond dicing blade decreased by 47.9% compared with that of the Ni/diamond dicing blade, the chipping size decreasing by 30.6%, and the radial wear reducing by 31.6%.