Tungsten-rhenium (W-Re) alloy is a solid solution alloy composed of chemical elements such as refractory metal tungsten and refractory metal rhenium. It has good thermal, mechanical, electrical and chemical properties.
Tungsten wire becomes very brittle after recrystallization after high temperature use, and it is easily broken under impact or vibration. Therefore, in order to solve the problem of filament breakage, 3%-5% rhenium is often added to the tungsten filament, which can reduce the plastic-brittle transition temperature of tungsten to room temperature or below.
Tungsten-rhenium wire is often used as bulb wire, electrical contact material, thermocouple material, high temperature resistant material, wear-resistant material and electrode material. Compared with pure tungsten wire, tungsten-rhenium wire is more suitable as the filament of some high-demand electric light source products because of its long service life.