Patent ID: 7037418

Claim:
An electrophoretic process for producing a deposited composite material consisting essentially of uniformly dispersed hard material particles in a glassceramic matrix, comprising the steps of: (a) providing a suspension containing 5–50% by weight (solid in solvent) of a mixture consisting of fine powders of hard materials, glass ceramic materials and/or materials convertible into glassceramic material, in a liquid consisting mainly of an organic solvent, said hard material particles constituting 20–80% by weight of said mixture and said glassceramic materials and/or materials convertible into glassceramic particles constituting the remaining part by weight of said mixture; (b) immersing in said suspension a substrate acting as a deposition electrode; (c) applying a direct current to said deposition electrode to cause electrophoretic deposition of the fine powder of the suspension thereon, wherein powders of said glassceramic matrix and/or materials convertible into same glassceramic matrix are deposited, so that said hard materials are distributed uniformly in the deposit; and (d) sintering the deposited composite obtained in step (c) at a temperature at which SiAlON and TiAlON are formed from the corresponding nitrides and oxides and at which SiAlON and TiAlON form a glassceramic matrix.