Verfahren zur Herstellung von Hartmetallegierungen oder harten Keramikmetallegierungen (Cermets)

The invention relates to a hard metal alloy or hard ceramic metal alloy (cermets) and a process for their production. The hard metal alloy and the hard ceramic metal alloy consist of one or several hard material phases of carbides, nitrides and/or carbonitrides of the metals of the IV, V and/or VI subgroups of the periodic table of elements and with a proportion of 2% to 30% by mass of one or several binding metal phases of cobalt, nickel or iron or alloys of these metals, and, in the case of cermets, of one or more additional ceramic phases. According to the invention, said hard metal alloy and these cermets have a very fine-grained structure and additionally contain traces of elementary Si and/or Si in the form of Si compounds, up to a maximum of 20% by mass of Si, as well as one or several other phases in addition to the hard material and binding metal phases and, in the case of cermets, hard material, binding metal and ceramic phases, whereby the elements of the hard metal alloy an d the cermets are contained in a different composition which has a different structure and which is not attacked by Murakami etching. This hard material alloy and these cermets are produced by means of conventional, powder-metallurgy processes, whereby, in the technological production process according to the invention, silicon and/or one or several silicon compounds are included additionally.