Patent ID: 8647562

Claim:
A production process, comprising: depositing a coating material over at least part of a surface of a block of completely dense sintered cermet material constituted by hard particles dispersed in a binder phase, leaving free at least one imbibition area of the surface; bringing the imbibition area of the surface of the block into contact with an imbibiting binder material having properties which support locally enriching the binder phase within the block with the imbibiting binder material; and subjecting the block in contact with the imbibiting binder material to a suitable thermal cycle, constituted by heating, temperature maintenance and cooling, which brings at least some of the imbibiting binder material and the binder phase of the block into the liquid state, so as to locally and gradually enrich the completely dense sintered cermet material block with the imbibiting binder material by imbibition through the imbibition area, the coating material modifying kinetics of migration of the imbibiting binder material into the block, wherein the block possesses after cooling a gradient of binder content within the block which exhibits a gradual binder phase distribution.