## 1 Introduction  
Although WC-Co still dominates the cutting tools market, alumina-based composite materials may be a good alternative to improve cutting speed and lower production costs [1; 2; 3; 4]. Alumina-based ceramic tools are used due to their excellent operational properties in extreme conditions such as wear resistance, hardness and low chemical interactivity with surrounding materials [5; 6; 7; 8]. Meanwhile, the range of applications of alumina ceramics as a structural material is limited by their low fracture toughness [9; 10; 11]. Therefore, cracks will propagate easily and can cause unpredictable failure of ceramic composites [12; 13]. Various techniques have been proposed to enhance the mechanical performance of alumina. For instance, the addition of reinforcing phases such as ceramics, metals, and intermetallic compounds into an Al\({}_{2}\)O\({}_{3}\) matrix, forming a composite material, has been proved to be an effective experimental route to improve the toughness of the ceramic matrix [14; 15; 16; 17; 18].  
In addition, the widespread use of these materials requires a non-traditional way of manufacturing [19; 20; 21; 22]. Today, materials are usually machined by grinding using abrasive materials or hard tools. However, machining of ceramic materials with sophisticated shapes using traditional machining methods is a complicated and time-consuming process due to their exceptional physical properties, especially extreme hardness.  
To this end, electrical discharge machining (EDM) is a commonly applied technique to machine single-phase ceramics, cermets, and ceramic matrix composites [23; 24; 25; 26].  
However, EDM is only possible on conducting materials with an electrical resistivity below 100 \(\div\) 300 \(\Omega\)-cm [27; 28; 29].  
Secondary phase TiC was incorporated into a ceramic matrix to improve the fracture toughness and electrical conductivity of alumina-based composites.  
Also, when traditional sintering methods are used to fabricate Al\({}_{2}\)O\({}_{3}\)-TiC composites, a high temperature is necessary to obtain nearly fully dense material. However, higher sintering temperature and sintering time lead to undesirable grain growth which may reduce the operational properties of the material [30; 31; 32].  
Furthermore, the following chemical reactions between Al\({}_{2}\)O\({}_{3}\) and TiC [33; 34],  
\[\mathrm{Al_{2}O_{3}+TiC}\ =\ \mathrm{Al_{2}O}\downarrow+\mathrm{TiO}+\mathrm{CO}\uparrow \tag{1}\]  
can occur at high temperatures and can cause porosity which also causes deterioration in the mechanical properties. Therefore, to decrease the sintering temperature spark plasma sintering (SPS) was used as an alternative consolidation method.  
Using this novel technology facilitates fast consolidation, allows fabrication of fully dense composites and avoids grain growth [35; 36; 37; 38; 39; 40].  
SPS also offers considerable advantages such as faster and shorter processing time compared to conventional sintering methods, due to simultaneous application of mechanical pressure and electric pulses [41; 42; 43].  
Therefore, the goals of the present investigation are twofold: the fabrication of electrically conductive ceramic composites with full density, and analysis of the effect of TiC phase addition on their mechanical performance and electrical conductivity.