Beryllium

27th May 2004, 05:59

I knew that part, but I thought Id post it anyway. Exposure to the metal itself isnt to leathal, but when machining the material you always relase some quantities of dust and fumes.

Inhaling pure beryllium dust or fumes cause beryllosis, which can be fatal.

However, about 15% of the world population are naturally sensitive to beryllium. Those individuals will develop an inflammatory reaction in the respiratory system, which often results in death.

**babeth** · 27th May 2004, 11:34

And you still wanted to bring this up ?
Well... thank you very much indeed for trying to reduce the opposition by means of autodarwination !

**anukhet** · 27th May 2004, 11:55

.....and the audience

**kaideejee** · 27th May 2004, 13:25

Brings a whole new meaning to the term dead metal.....

-- Kev

**swedemac** · 28th May 2004, 08:05

Well...hes just plowing the way for us, hopefully , three teams from Sweden

. We need all the advantages we can get...he he.

28th May 2004, 09:56

You found out my evil scheme! Imagine what would happen when we arrived:

Event organiser: So why are you Swedes wearing full biosuites?
Swedish roboteer: What do you mean? This is normal clothing in Sweden.

That wouldnt be very cool though. I mean literary, it would be very warm in there! Better make sure to have air condition in it. Which also would lead to an intressting dialogue:

Even organiser: You need any help?
Swedish roboteer: That reminds me, where could I find a place to plug in my charger? The batteries for my biosuit air condition is getting low.

**mightymouse** · 28th May 2004, 16:30

Some bright spark engineer at work suggested Beryllium for some high pressure windows in our oil logging tools.

The only people we could find who were prepared to machine it were in Germany and it was done in a sealed environment - the machinist had to step into an environmental suit.

When it arrived at our factory everyone who was to handle it was given face masks and gloves and told that if any dust got into a cut it would never heal. The foreman then chiped in that a few years earlier in a previous job he visited a factory where a machinist had cut his finger, the cut didnt heal, and he had his hand amputated. I have no idea whether this is true or not, but we all bottled out and promptly told them what they could do with their new wonder material.

On the other hand, it is stronger than Titanium and half the weight. When held in the hand (with gloves - and face mask) it was amazingly light.

28th May 2004, 18:36

So Beryllium is a no no then

**stb** · 28th May 2004, 19:48

Sounds like a terrific material. Strong and light. They are probably just exaggerating the hazards. Just use a pair of gloves when you are grinding it.

30th May 2004, 04:48

Strong and light, but brittle and very susceptible to fatigue.

I know that if you want to produce anything out of Beryllium in the US, youll have the Environmental Protection Agency breathing down your neck.

It has comparably low impact hardness and is only somewhat stronger than 6061 Al. Im sure there are stronger alloys of Be, but its strength is not its strength

. Rather, its structural efficientcy (stiffness/weight) is whats so attractive.

So its not going to help you except in the frame of your robot and other things where weight and stiffness are important. Definately not a good candidate for armor.

Solid parts are not dangerous, but machining them is and is a bit more difficult than other structural materials (its susceptible to tool-induced microcracking that can lead to fatigue problems).

And its not legal.

Stick with Aluminum and Titanium for structure...or even high strength steel. If you need light weight stiff components that dont need to be tough, use unidirectional laminated carbon fiber

. Its much cheaper and safer than beryllium.

Mack

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