[TheForge] forging copper; now beryllium copper

[Grant Marcoux]

beryllium copper alloy is also used in small-arms firing pins because of its
toughness.....I think Ruger uses this alloy in their auto pistol firing
pins.  Grant

-----Original Message-----
From: theforge-bounces at mailman.qth.net
[mailto:theforge-bounces at mailman.qth.net]On Behalf Of James Binnion
Sent: Wednesday, September 28, 2005 12:11 PM
To: Sponsored by ABANA
Subject: Re: [TheForge] forging copper; now beryllium copper


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



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