Development of whisker toughening ceramic cutting tool composite by in situ synthesis technology

While whisker toughening ceramic cutting tool composites have excellent mechanical properties at either room or high temperature, the development of them is often limited by some difficulties in the fabrication and application. Here a TiC whisker toughening Al2O3 ceramic cutting tool composite is developed by in situ synthesis technology. Experimental results show the flexure strength, fracture toughness and Vickers hardness of the composite can achieve to 855.7MPa, 7.63 MPa center dot min(1/2) and 19.5GPa, respectively. Being different to that of conventional whisker toughening ceramic composites, the toughness of the composite is dominated by the chemical interface bonding between TIC and Al2O3, which increases with increasing sintering temperature, and the sliding resistance is suggested to be due to the physical absorption and mechanical meshing between the two debonded surfaces.