Influence of Hot Pressing Sintering Temperature and Time on Microstructure and Mechanical Properties of TiB2/Al2O3 Tool Materials
In this paper, a TiB2/Al2O3composite was hot-pressed. The effect of hot pressing parameters on the TiB2/Al2O3composite microstructure and mechanical properties was investigated. The flexural strength and fracture toughness were measured by three point bending testing and direct indentation method, respectively. Experimental results show that the flexural strength decreases consistently with an increase in the sintering time, however, the fracture toughness increases consistently with an increase in the sintering time and sintering temperature. The maximum of the flexural strength is 1072 MPa at 1530 sintering temperature and 60 min sintering time. The microstructures were revealed by means of SEM. The results show that the TiB2grain size and density increases with the increasing temperature and time during hot pressing sintering, which benefits the fracture toughness and flexural strength.