Advanced Cutting Tool Material by Hot-Pressing Ceramic Coated Carbide Powders

Carbide powders were coated with very thin alumina films by the sol-gel pro.cess. The coated powders were then hot-pressed as a novel cutting tool material. This material possessed relatively high hardness, which led to similar wear resistant ability with ceramics. At the same time, its bending strength and toughness were higher than that of the ceramic cutting tool materials with similar composition. As a result, these tools show good performance in cutting high-hardness materials. SEM and TEM photographs of coated powders and fracture surface were presented as an aid to illustrate the strengthen mechanism.