General Characteristics According to Hornbostel (1991), Beryllium is a hard, exceptionally, lightweight, gray-white metal, corrosion resistant at ordinary temperatures; chemically it is related to aluminum. Other than titanium, it is the only light metal which has both good strength and a high melting point. Additionally, it is a good electrical conductor, has high modulus of elasticity, exceptionally transmit x-rays and sounds at very high velocities. Moreover, it has the ability to act as a source, moderator and reflector of neutrons. It can be forged, rolled and extruded, machined, punched, sheared and casted by vacuum casting. Commercially, it is available in block, rod, sheet, pebble, metal disk, foil and powder form.
Beryllium …show more content…
It can withstand fatigue and wear, and can be strengthened and hardened to an accurately controllable degree. It can be easily casted, corrosion resistant and reproduce fine detail. Moreover, it has high electrical conductivity at high temperatures. To introduce Beryllium into metals, Beryllium alloys of magnesium-aluminum, aluminum, nickel, copper, iron or cobalt are always used (Hornbostel, 1991). According to Harper (2001), Beryllium oxide, with a melting point of 2585 °C and specific gravity of 3.025, is a cubic close-packed and has a zinc blende structure. It is stable in dry atmospheres. At high temperature, it reacts with graphite. And for 1100 °C and above, it hydrolyzes. It is electrically resistant and is a good thermal …show more content…
It also used to eliminate the use of lead and cadmium and minimize the use of zinc and nickel. Also, it is used in immersion deposition for all surface replaceable ions to become tin. However, to attain good results, a good base metal preparation is needed. It is an environment-acceptable process and has a low cost. In electrodeposition, it is used as an alternative for tin-lead and cadmium coatings due to its good solderability and corrosion resistance. But, formation of thin whiskers can also be observed. It can also be used in hot dipping, autocatalytic deposition and spraying (Harper,