The effectiveness of the punching process to form the nano metric cutting edge of microtools was investigated in this study. To achieve improvement of tool wear and stability of shared surfaces. An argon ion irradiation beam for finishing the cutting edge of a micropunch of nanometric size was developed. Firstly, the cutting edge radius of the micropunch was decgreased from the micrometric to nanometric scale. Secondly, chipping of the WC-Co alloy at the cutting edge of the micropunch was decreased using on ion beam irradiation micropunch. Moreover, the shear droop length in the punched hole was decreased by using ion beam irradiation micropunch. Therefore, ion beam irradiation can effectively improve the cutting edge quality of a micropunch with no apparent damage.
