Abstract
In the present study, SiCSi-$Si_3 N_4$-SiC ceramic composites that contained up to 30 wt% of dispersed SiC particles were fabricat-ed cia hot-pressing with an oxynitride glass. The microstructure, the mechanical properties and the cutting performance of resulting ceramic composites were investigated. By fixing the composition as $Si_3 N_4$-20wf%SiC, the effect of sintering time on the microstructure, the mechanical properties and the cutting performance were also investigated. The longer sir-tering time is, the bigger the grain size of SiC is. The fracture toughness(-$K_k$) of the $Si_3 N_4$-SiC ceramic composites increased with the increase of gain size, while the flexural strengthh($\sigma$) decreased. For machining SCM440, the insert with 20wt%r SiC sintered for 8 hours showed the longest tool life while the insert with 20wt% SiC sintered for 12 hours showed the longest tool life for machining gray cast iron.
