PcBN (Polycrystalline cubic Boron Nitride) materials are employed as tips, full face or solid cBN in inserts for machining iron-based alloys, due to its high hardness, and thermal and chemical stability. These materials consist of a hard cubic BN phase consolidated in a ceramic and/or metallic matrix, with metallic binder elements as Al, Co, Ni, W, or even ceramic compounds containing these elements (carbides, nitrides, borides, or silicides), resulting in different types of microstructure [ 1,2]. In order to assist the microstructural design of these composites, thermodynamic simulation through software’s can be used for prediction and design of phase diagrams and optimization of composites properties [3]. In this work, the composite microstructure of the cBN-TiCN-Ni system was designed and predicted using the Thermo-calc software and experimentally validated. Compositions of cBN-TiCN (50:50 vol %) with addition of Ni 5% vol were sintered by Spark Plasma Sintering (SPS) and their structures and microstructures were analyzed by XRD and SEM/EDS, respectively, in order to validate the thermodynamic calculations.
References
[1] R. Riedel, Handbook of Ceramic Hard Materials, Wiley, 2000, pp. 518 – 519. https://doi.org/10.1002/9783527618217.
 
[2] B. K. Agarwala, B. P. Singh, S. K. Singhal, Synthesis and characterization of polycrystalline sintered compacts of cubic boron nitride, J. Mater. Sci. 21 (1986) 1765–1768. https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01114737
 
[3] J.O. Andersson, T. Helander, L. Höglund, P. Shi, B. Sundman, Thermo-Calc & DICTRA, computational tools for materials science, Calphad Comput. Coupling Phase Diagrams Thermochem. 26 (2002) 273–312. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0364-5916(02)00037-8.