| abstract |
In a process, a thermally stable diamond table body and a substrate are stacked on each other at an interface which includes a layer of a imbibiting material interposed between a bottom surface of the body and an upper surface of the substrate. The stack is subjected to a suitable thermal cycle, constituted by heating, temperature maintenance and cooling, which brings at least some of the imbibiting material into the liquid state for migration into the thermally stable diamond table body and substrate at and about the interface so as to join the thermally stable diamond table body to the substrate. The substrate may be produced as a block of dense material constituted by hard particles dispersed in a binder phase, wherein the dense material has been enriched locally with binder phase by imbibition. Alternatively, imbibition material from the enriched substrate may be caused by the thermal cycle to migrate from the substrate into the diamond table body so as to join the thermally stable diamond table body to the substrate. |