Erosive wear of .ALPHA.'-.BETA.' sialon composites.

ErosiveWear of ƒ¿'-ƒÀ'Sialon Composites.Sialon composites with different ratios of ƒ¿'-Sialon to ƒÀ'-Sialon were made by the hot-pressing method, and their erosive wear were tested using SiC and A1203 particles as well as monolithic ceramics such as ƒ¿-Sialon, ƒÀ-Si3N4 and sintered SiC.The Sialon composites exhibited unti-erosion properties superior to those of the monolithic ceramics.The Sialon composites posses the hardness of about 23GPa which is as large as that of ƒ¿-Sialon and the excellent fracture toughness of 7.5MPam1/2 which is similar to that of ƒÀ-Si3N4.The superior unti-erosion properties of the Sialon composites resulted in their excellent mechanical properties.