In 1907, a tungsten alloy with low nickel content was introduced, which was prepared by mechanical processing, but its severe brittleness hindered its application. Until 1909, w.D. Coolidge of General Electric Company in the United States obtained tungsten billets through powder metallurgy, and then used mechanical processing to produce tungsten wires with ductility at room temperature, laying the foundation for the tungsten wire processing industry and also laying the foundation for powder metallurgy.

However, this "ductile" tungsten alloy exhibits significant brittleness after the bulb is ignited. In 1913, Pintsch invented thorium tungsten filament (with a content of 1% to 2% ThO2), which greatly reduced the brittleness of incandescent filaments. At first, the sagging of the filament (see the anti sagging performance of tungsten filament) was not a problem because the filament was straight at this time. However, after 1913, Langmuir changed the straight filament to a spiral filament, which made it difficult for pure tungsten and thorium tungsten to meet the usage requirements due to the high operating temperature and self weight when using bulbs.

In order to solve the problems of tungsten wire sagging and short service life, in 1917, A. Pacz invented a tungsten alloy that "does not deform" at high temperatures. At first, he used a refractory crucible to calcine WO3 when preparing pure tungsten. He accidentally discovered that the tungsten wire spiral made of tungsten powder reduced from this WO3 was mysteriously no longer sagging after recrystallization. Subsequently, after 218 repeated experimental verifications, he finally discovered that potassium and sodium silicate were added to tungstic acid (WO3 · H2O), and the tungsten wire was prepared through reduction, compression, sintering, processing, etc. After recrystallization, it formed a fairly coarse grain structure, which was neither soft nor anti sagging. This was the earliest non sagging tungsten wire. The discovery of Perth laid the foundation for the production of non sagging tungsten wire, and to this day, the United States still refers to non sagging tungsten wire as "218 tungsten wire" to commemorate Perth's significant discovery.

The production process of doped tungsten alloy is lengthy, including several main stages of tungsten smelting, powder metallurgy billet making, and plastic processing.

The production of doped tungsten alloys usually uses ammonium paratungstate (APT) as the raw material. In addition to traditional classical processes, extraction and ion exchange methods were studied internationally in the 1950s to produce ammonium paratungstate from tungsten concentrate. China also adopted these processes in the 1970s, simplifying the process flow and improving the recovery rate of tungsten. Since the 1960s, many countries have adopted the blue tungsten oxide doping process to replace tungsten trioxide doping, thereby improving the doping effect. The pickling of tungsten powder was applied in production in the 1960s, with the main purpose of removing excess dopants, ultrafine powder, and some harmful impurities from tungsten powder, thereby improving processing performance and high-temperature performance of tungsten wire. Since the 1960s, the pass rolling method has been continuously applied. Pass rolling is the process of passing a billet through the pass of a pair of rotating rollers, reducing the cross-section and extending the length under the pressure of the rollers.

Although only a small portion of tungsten ore is ultimately made into tungsten filament lamps and similar products, the most important significance of tungsten in science and technology is the transformation of its research results into practical applications. The knowledge gained has immeasurable value in the new field of powder metallurgy, especially in the manufacturing of hard alloys.