LIQUID PHASE MIGRATION DURING DIAMOND POWDER SINTERING BY INFILTRATION METHOD

Compacts made of sintered diamond powder (DP) are not only extensively used but also essential cutting inserts for operations such as machining metal components or drilling rocks for petroleum extraction. The high pressure and high temperature (HPHT) sintering can be achieved either by an initial mixture of DP with a metallic binder or by first processing the DP at HPHT, which creates a sintered skeleton, followed by the molten metallic binder infiltration. This work investigates the infiltration of Cu, Co and Ni, as binders, into sintered diamond powders with different particles size. It was found that migration of the liquid phase through the sintered diamond skeleton complies with the Darci Law. The penetration coefficient varied from 0.89 x 10(-7) to 6.41 x 10(-7) mu m(2) indicating that the migration is affected by several factors.