Wear-resistant ceramic and metal–ceramic ultrafine composites fabricated from combustion synthesised metastable powders

Dense Ti–Al₂O₃–TiC cermet and TiC–TiB₂ ceramic composites have been fabricated by high-pressure high-temperature (HPHT) sintering starting from metastable nanostructured powders obtained by means of a technique based on the self-propagating high-temperature synthesis (SHS) process. The microstructural observations showed that an ultrafine microstructure was retained in the sintered composites thanks to the limited grain growth allowed by the short sintering duration of the HPHT method. The sintered TiC–TiB₂ and Ti–Al₂O₃–TiC fine-grained bulk composites exhibited high values of hardness and Young modulus. The tribological characterization confirmed the good properties of both the materials in terms of wear-resistance and makes them very promising candidates for demanding applications. The influence of the ultrafine grain size on physical and tribological properties of the densified materials is discussed.