Nickel alloy is an alloy composed of nickel-based and other elements, and the Monel alloy containing about 30% copper, which was made around 1905, is an early nickel alloy. Nickel has good mechanical, physical and chemical properties, adding the right elements can improve its oxidation resistance, corrosion resistance, high temperature strength and improve some physical properties. Nickel alloys can be used as materials for electronic tubes, precision alloys (magnetic alloys, precision resistance alloys, electrothermal alloys, etc.), nickel-based high-temperature alloys, and nickel-based corrosion-resistant alloys and shape memory alloys. Nickel alloys have a wide range of uses in sectors such as energy development, chemical, electronics, marine, aviation and aerospace.

In 1905, the United States produced Monel alloy, the earliest nickel-based corrosion-resistant alloy. 1906, the United States began to produce nickel-chromium-molybdenum-copper corrosion-resistant alloy. 1920, Germany produced nickel-chromium-molybdenum corrosion-resistant alloy. 1941, the United Kingdom produced nickel-chromium-titanium alloy. 1953, the former Soviet Union produced nickel-tungsten-calcium alloy for electric vacuum devices. 1958, the United States produced nickel-tungsten-zirconium alloy for electric vacuum devices. China started to produce nickel-based corrosion resistant alloy and nickel-based temperature measurement material in the early 1950s; developed and produced nickel alloy and nickel-based high temperature alloy for electric vacuum devices in the early 1960s; produced nickel-based catalyst alloy and nickel-beryllium elastic alloy for synthetic diamond in the early 1970s.

① Nickel-based high-temperature alloys. The main alloying elements are chromium, tungsten, molybdenum, cobalt, aluminum, titanium, boron, zirconium, etc.. Among them, chromium plays the role of oxidation and corrosion resistance, other elements play a strengthening role. In 650 ~ 1000 ℃ high temperature has high strength and oxidation resistance, gas corrosion resistance, is the most widely used in high temperature alloys, high temperature strength of the highest class of alloy. Used in the manufacture of aircraft engine blades and rocket engines, nuclear reactors, energy conversion equipment on the high-temperature parts.
② Nickel-based corrosion-resistant alloys. The main alloy elements are copper, chromium, molybdenum. Has a good overall performance, can be resistant to a variety of acid corrosion and stress corrosion. The earliest application is nickel-copper alloy, also known as Monel alloy; in addition, there are nickel-chromium alloy, nickel-molybdenum alloy, nickel-chromium-molybdenum alloy, etc.. Used in the manufacture of a variety of corrosion-resistant parts.
③ Nickel-based wear-resistant alloys. The main alloy elements are chromium, molybdenum, tungsten, also contains a small amount of niobium, tantalum and indium. In addition to wear resistance, its oxidation resistance, corrosion resistance, welding performance is also good. Can be manufactured wear-resistant parts, but also as a cladding material, through the overlay welding and coating process will be clad in other base material surface.
④Nickel-based precision alloys. Including nickel-based soft magnetic alloys, nickel-based precision resistance alloys and nickel-based electrothermal alloys. The most commonly used soft magnetic alloy is the BoM alloy containing about 80% nickel, which has high maximum permeability and starting permeability and low coercivity, and is an important core material in the electronic industry. The main alloying elements of nickel-based precision resistance alloys are chromium, aluminum and copper. This alloy has high resistivity, low resistivity temperature coefficient and good corrosion resistance and is used to make resistors. Nickel-based electric heating alloy is a nickel alloy containing 20% chromium, which has good resistance to oxidation and corrosion and can be used for a long time at temperatures from 1000 to 1100°C.
⑤ Nickel-based shape memory alloy. Nickel alloy containing 50(at)% titanium. Its recovery temperature is 70℃, with good shape memory effect. A small change in the proportion of nickel and titanium components can make the recovery temperature vary in the range of 30 to 100 ℃. It is mostly used in the manufacture of self-opening structural parts used in spacecraft, self-exciting fasteners for the aerospace industry, and artificial heart motors used in biomedicine.