According to different purposes, tungsten alloys are divided into hard alloys, high density alloys, metal sweating materials, contact materials, electronic and electric light source materials.

Doped tungsten wire involves adding about 1% of silicon, aluminum, and potassium oxides to tungsten powder. During the vertical melting (self resistance sintering) process, the additive potassium oxide evaporates and forms pores inside the material, which are elongated along the axial direction after processing; After annealing, elongated pores form dispersed rows of bubbles parallel to the filament axis, commonly known as potassium bubbles. Potassium bubbles hinder the lateral growth of tungsten grains, improve the high-temperature sagging resistance of tungsten, and also improve the room temperature plasticity after recrystallization, which is beneficial for wire winding and transportation and storage. Chinese doped tungsten wire has three grades based on its high-temperature creep value: WAl1, WAl2, and WAl3.

In W-ThO2 based alloys, adding an appropriate amount of dispersed ThO2 particles with good thermal stability can not only reduce electron escape work, but also inhibit tungsten grain growth, resulting in high recrystallization temperature, excellent high-temperature strength, and creep resistance of the material. Tungsten thorium alloy is not only a widely used hot electron emission material, but also an excellent electrode material.

In tungsten rhenium alloys, the addition of rhenium can not only improve material strength and increase the recrystallization temperature of the alloy by about 200-400 ℃, resulting in good plasticity and slow grain growth after secondary recrystallization, but also significantly reduce the plastic brittle transition temperature. If the added rhenium exceeds 30%, it will damage the processing performance of the alloy. Tungsten rhenium alloy also has a high thermoelectric potential, and its thermoelectric potential is linearly related to temperature at 2200 ℃. Tungsten rhenium thermocouple can measure temperatures up to 3000 ℃, making it an excellent high-temperature thermocouple material.

The main problems in China's hard alloy industry are: firstly, the scale of enterprises is small and the concentration of the industry is not high. According to incomplete statistics, the average annual production capacity of 199 hard alloy enterprises is 176 tons, with an average annual production of only 86 tons. Only 4 enterprises have an annual production capacity of over 1000 tons. Secondly, there is a lack of investment in technology, a lack of high-end technical talents, and weak technological research and development capabilities. The investment in technology in China's hard alloy industry accounts for less than 3% of sales revenue, and the level of scientific research and development is not high. There are few original core technological achievements. Thirdly, the product quality level is relatively low, and the product structure needs to be adjusted. China's hard alloy production accounts for over 40% of the world's total production, but the sales revenue of hard alloys is less than 20% of the global total. This is mainly due to the low production of high value-added products such as high-performance ultra-fine alloys, high-precision high-performance grinding coated blades, superhard tool materials, complex and unconventional products, precision hard alloy CNC cutting tools, and insufficient deep processing supporting facilities, as well as incomplete varieties.