Effects of rare earth and sintering temperature on the transverse rupture strength of Fe-based diamond composites

In this paper, the effects of sintering temperature in hot pressing, and the types, states and amounts of rare earth as well as TiH2, on the transverse rupture strength (TRS) of Fe-based composites are studied by means of an orthogonal test and variance analysis. It is found that the sintering temperature has a great influence on the TRS of Fe-based composites, while the types of rare earth and its states have little influence. TiH2 has a negative effect on the TRS of Fe-based composites. Under all of the experimental sintering temperatures, Fe-based diamond composites with small amount of rare earth additives have higher TRS. The optimal amount of rare earth was found to be about 1 wt.%.