Patent ID: 7238308

Claim:
A process for producing ceramic composites comprising metal carbides, which comprises the following steps: drying wood at a temperature of from 40° C. to 95° C., carbonizing the dried wood at a temperature of from 700° C. to 1500° C., to obtain a body having a density of from 0.1 g/cm 3 to 0.9 g/cm 3 forming a wick from the carbonized wood having a total porosity of from 40% to 90%, and an open porosity of from 15% to 60%, with mesopores in the carbonized wood running parallel to a longitudinal direction of the wick, producing a porous carbon-containing green body by placing the green body on the wick so that pore channels in the wick impinge on the surface of the green body at an angle of from 0° to not more than 45° to the normal of the surface, infiltrating the green body with the melt of a carbide-forming metal via the wick, reacting at least part of the carbon of the green body with the carbide-forming metal to form a metal carbide, wherein at least part of the carbide-forming metal is supplied via the wick.