Spark plasma sintering of diamond impregnated wire saw beads

Diamond MMCs are widely used for the cutting of stone and concrete. An effective way of cutting large sized parts is to use wire saws which have hundreds or thousands of small beads on a flexible wire. Typically, these diamond impregnated MMC beads were conventionally sintered by vacuum sintering, pressure sintering or sintering in continuous furnaces. In the present study, the spark plasma sintering of Diamond/MMCs with Co-free Steel/Cu matrix composition was investigated. The results of the physical, chemical and mechanical properties of short time sintered beads are compared with conventional sintering. The focus of the study is on the interaction between matrix metals and diamond, as well as on the design of the multi-part pressing tools for net shape sintering.