The aim of this work is to present a machine to produce notches in ceramic bodies as well the choice and how to make the notches. SiC-ceramics was produced by liquid phase sintering as testing material. For the liquid sintering, a mixture of Al2O3 and Yb2O3 as additives was applied. The machine was developed and built by a company sited in S. Carlos-SP. It permits to obtain narrow notches in ceramic specimens to be fractured afterwards. That is to facilitate the measurement of KICbased on the SEVNB method. Specimens of 10% of (Al2O3+Yb2O3) containing SiC were sintered at 1950 ºC. Those specimens were machined and notched using the machine and razor blades and diamond pastes of 15, 9, 6, 3, 1 and 0.25 µm of particle size. The built machine is installed at DEMAR-EEL-USP, and it is said to be the first of that type in Brazil. The results showed that depending on the thickness of the razor blade and the size of the diamond particles, it can be produced notches with distinct tip radius and notch depth values.
fracture toughness; SEVNB; notching; SiC
