Properties of tungsten and its alloys

As tungsten is the most refractory of metals, consolidation techniques using arc melting or electron beam are relatively recent and limited to laboratories. Unfortunately, they result in a highly recrystallized metal that is exceptionally brittle at grain boundaries. As a result, current commercial production of wrought tungsten essentially relies on powder metallurgy techniques, a path brilliantly opened up for this metal by Coolidge in 1910.