The high-performance tool materials have been inevitably used for most of the cutting tool applications where high reliability and difficult to cut materials are of major demand. The cemented carbides and its composites offer an excellent combination of the properties where it can be used for tool materials due to its high wear resistance, high hardness at elevated temperatures, and considerable fracture toughness. However to obtain optimum values of mechanical properties and uniformly distributed ultrafine grains, a number of new fabrication techniques, alteration in the content of cemented carbide composition, and variation in the parameters of fabrication process have been employed. This review paper will come in handy for researchers and scientists working on advanced cemented carbides and spark plasma sintering as it overviews the recent work done on tungsten carbide composites using the novel spark plasma sintering technique considering different process parameters in order to achieve ultrafine microstructures of sintered specimens, enhanced mechanical properties of composites in addition to energy as well as time saving considerations. The thorough review of various research papers revealed that the parameters of the sintering (sintering temperature, applied pressure, surrounding environment), additives in sintering (both content and composition), reinforcement of cemented carbide with other materials, nano-filler/whisker addition, partial or complete removal of metallic phase from the cemented carbide affect the properties of sintered specimens and their calculated as well as optimum setting can provide an excellent combination of properties desired in cutting tool operations.

高性能刀具材料已不可避免地用于大多数对高可靠性和难切削材料有主要需求的刀具应用。由于其高耐磨性、高温下的高硬度和相当大的断裂韧性，硬质合金及其复合材料提供了优异的性能组合，可用于工具材料。然而，为了获得机械性能的最佳值和均匀分布的超细晶粒，已经采用了许多新的制造技术、硬质合金成分含量的改变以及制造工艺参数的变化。这篇综述论文将对从事高级硬质合金和放电等离子烧结的研究人员和科学家派上用场，因为它概述了最近使用新型放电等离子烧结技术对碳化钨复合材料所做的工作，考虑了不同的工艺参数，以实现烧结的超细微结构。除了能量和节省时间的考虑之外，还提高了复合材料的机械性能。对各种研究论文的全面审查表明，烧结参数（烧结温度、施加压力、周围环境）、烧结添加剂（含量和成分）、硬质合金与其他材料的增强、纳米填料/晶须添加、