[TheForge] forging copper; now beryllium copper

[James Binnion]

Berylium sickness is bad news and there is a pretty solid cancer link  
to beryllium. That said it is only used for copper alloys that must  
be extra hard and springy. The addtion of almost any metal other than  
silver makes copper less electrically conductive. This means higher  
cost of passing current through it so a designer would only specify  
beryllium copper if there was a specific need for mechanical strength  
in that particular buss bar. Also Beryllium copper is much more  
expensive than oxygen free alloy due in part to the extra precautions  
that must be taken with its manufacturing so it is not common stuff.  
The vast majority of copper alloys do not contain beryllium. For lots  
of information on copper alloys, properties, uses etc go to

http://copper.org/resources/properties/homepage.html

for buss bar alloys

http://copper.org/resources/properties/db/CDAUsesResultServlet.jsp? 
form_id=All&category=Electrical&alloy=All&reason=All&use=Bus+Bars

James Binnion
jbin at well.com