For dry machining of mineral materials the Institute of Materials Engineering pursues a novel thermal protection shield concept for diamond tools, in which thermal insulating materials in diamond composite structures act as heat shield, which protects diamonds in deeper layers against high temperature and graphitisation. Before the effectiveness of this concept could be investigated suitable composites have to be manufactured. In this paper the powder metallurgical production processes of diamond-alumina-cobalt-composites with varying alumina and cobalt particle sizes, their microstructures and porosities are described. It could be observed that the distribution of small-sized alumina particles (<70μm) in the cobalt matrix is uniform and the porosity of the composite decrease.

• Tillmann
• W.
• Gathen
• M.
• Kronholz
• C.