Beryllium metal matrix composites for aerospace and commercial applications

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Beryllium metal matrix composites for aerospace and commercial applications

Parsonage, T.

There is a growing need in both aerospace and commercial markets for lighter weight, higher stiffness and higher thermal stability materials. To address those needs, Brush Wellman Inc. has developed, characterised, and put into high volume production a family of beryllium metal matrix composites. The first family of materials is aluminium beryllium (AlBeMet, which is a registered tradename of Brush Wellman). This material is a metal matrix composite consisting of pure beryllium and aluminium, with 20-62 vol.-%Be and the remainder aluminium. The material is produced by both powder metallurgy and net shape technologies such as investment casting and semi-solid forming. The materials properties that make it attractive for the design engineer are a density that is 25% less than that of Al, a specific stiffness four times those of aluminium, titanium, steel, and magnesium, a higher dampening capacity than aluminium, and a coefficient of thermal expansion almost 50% lower than aluminium. The second family of materials is a beryllium - beryllium oxide metal matrix composite. The material properties that make this material attractive to the electronic packaging engineer are: a density 20-25% that of Kovar, Invar, and CuMoCu, and 30% less than AI-SiC; a thermal conductivity ranging from 210 to 240 W m(exp-1)K(exp-1) and a tailorable coefficient of thermal expansion, ranging from 6 x 10(exp-6) to 8.7 x 10(exp-6)K(exp-1).