Analysis of latest tungsten market from Chinatungsten Online

The ferro tungsten and tungsten carbide powder prices in the Chinese market remain stable on May 24, 2023 as the market is in a stalemate with poor liquidity. 

To develop modified tungsten materials, progress has been made in the development of irradiation-resistant W materials with improved thermomechanical properties over the past decade under collaborative university research and development in Japan. Researchers have developed grain refinement, work hardening, alloying, and dispersion strengthening aimed at improving the ductility and toughness of modified tungsten materials, even under neutron irradiation.

K-doping, dispersion of La₂O₃ particles, and Re alloying have been mainly used as modification methods for modified tungsten materials. To clarify the effect of these modifications, the main conditions of the basic production route were the same for all materials, including cold isostatic pressing, sintering, rolling or forging, and finally heat treatment for stress relief. In order to study the effect of the reduction rate (deformation rate) in rolling and forging, several levels of deformation rates were used.

As a plasma-facing material (PFM) for fusion reactor steering, the mechanical properties of W materials still suffer from some defects, namely ductile-to-brittle transition temperature (DBTT) and brittleness due to recrystallization. To solve these problems, modified tungsten materials with improved thermomechanical properties, neutron irradiation tolerance, and microstructural homogeneity with mass production possibilities have been developed in the last decade with collaborative R&D at Japanese universities.