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Beryllium was discovered by Louis-Nicolas Vauquelin (Fr) in 1798 as the oxide in beryl and in emeralds. The name beryllium comes from the Greek ‘’bērullos’’, in reference to the pale semiprecious gemstone beryl. At one time beryllium was referred to as ‘glucinium’, the name coming from the Greek word ‘’glykis’’ for sweet, due to the sweet taste of its salts.

Beryllium is a mineral extracted from the ground mainly in an oxide state. A bivalent element, beryllium is a steel grey metal that can be mostly found in the minerals, the most important of which are bertrandite [AlBe₃(Si₆O₁₈)], chrysobéryl (Al ₂BeO₄), and phenakite (BE ₂SIO₄)

Precious forms of beryl are aquamarine, bixbite and emerald. Pure beryllium is obtained by reduction of beryl or by electrolyse of the beryllium chloride. At this state, pure beryllium metal has a high thermal conductibility and is non-magnetic.

Copper-beryllium alloys are mainly based on copper with a beryllium addition. High strength beryllium copper alloys contain 0.4-2% of beryllium with about 0.3 to 2.7% of other alloying elements such as nickel, cobalt, iron or plumb. The high mechanical strength is achieved by precipitation hardening or age hardening.

The best combination of mechanical and electrical properties

The users can get several advantages by working with copper beryllium alloys such as its easy fabrication (i.e. machining or forming) and the simplicity of obtaining the desired final properties by a low temperature heat treatment. This makes copper beryllium the most flexible, essential, and versatile of all copper base alloys.

The copper-beryllium alloys processed by NGK Berylco France offer a wide combination of mechanical and electrical properties which is unique for copper alloys. The mechanical strength achieved after heat treatment ranks highest amongst all the copper alloy materials and is combined with a high electrical conductivity which outperforms that of bronzes.

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