HARD COMPOSITE AND METHOD OF MAKING THE SAME

摘要

A method of heat treating a sintered body having an exposed surface which ha s the steps of: providing a sintered body comprised of a hard carbide and a binder, the binder being present in the sintered body at a first binder leve l and the hard carbide in the sintered body being of a first grain size; placi ng granules of a sacrificial sintered material in contact with at least one portion of the exposed surface of the sintered body, the sacrificial sintere d material comprised of the hard carbide and the binder, the binder being present in the sacrificial sintered material at a second binder level and th e hard carbide in the sacrificial sintered material being of a second grain size; and heat treating the sintered body and sacrificial sintered material so as to change the binder content in a surface region of the sintered body.