Metal-ceramic functionally graded materials – manufacturing, characterization, application

Functionally graded materials (FGMs) belong to a new, continuously developing group of materials, finding application in various branches of industry. The idea of freely designing their construction profile, restricted only by the available manufacturing techniques, enables obtaining materials with composition and structure gradients having unprecedented properties. In this paper, selected results of works carried out by the authors and relating to the application of the developed metal-ceramic composites were presented in order to manufacture functionally graded materials for target purposes. Gradient structures with various construction profiles that can play different roles were produced on the basis on the following material pairs: Cr-Al2O3, NiAl-Al2O3 and Cu-AlN. Manufacturing conditions, microstructure characteristics and selected properties, crucial from the point of view of future applications, were presented.