Crack healing and strength recovery of Al2O3/TiC/TiB2 ceramic tool materials

Abstract Because ceramic tool materials are sensitive to defects such as microcracks, this paper develops ceramic tool materials with crack healing function to solve this problem. In this paper, Al2O3/TiC/TiB2 ceramic tool materials were prepared by vacuum hot pressing sintering technology. Cracks of different lengths are prefabricated on the surface of the material through Vickers hardness tester. The crack healing of the material was studied by high temperature air heat treatment. According to the recovery of material strength after heat treatment and the change of microstructure, the crack healing effect of the material was judged. The effects of different heat treatment temperature, heat treatment time and crack length on the healing behavior of ceramic materials were mainly studied. Research shows that the surface crack of the material is completely filled and healed by oxidation products. The flexural strength of the specimen with pre-cracked surface is only 24.50% of that of the smooth specimen. After heat treatment at 700 °C for 60 min, the strength of the cracked specimen returns to 91.35% of that of the smooth specimen. The maximum effective crack length for crack healing of this ceramic material is 500 μm. Through micro-morphology and elemental analysis, it is found that the main mechanism of surface crack healing is the filling and healing of cracks by liquid phase oxidation products of titanium diboride, namely boron trioxide and titanium dioxide, thus restoring the flexural strength of the material.