Beryllium Copper C17200 Flat Bars with High Tensile Strength, Corrosion Resistance, and Age Hardening Capability

Beryllium Copper C17200 Flat Bars High Tensile Strength

Common Name: C17200, alloy25, CuBe2, QBe2.0, DIN 2.1247
CuBe2--C17200 Beryllium Copper is the most commonly utilized Copper Beryllium alloy and is notable for its highest strength and hardness compared to commercial copper alloys. C17200 alloy contains appr. 2% of beryllium and achieves its ultimate tensile strength can exceed 200 ksi, while the hardness approaches Rockwell C45. Meanwhile, the electrical conductivity is a minimum of 22% IACS in the fully aged condition.C17200 also exhibits exceptional resistance to stress relaxation at elevated temperatures.

Typical Application for C17200 Beryllium Copper Alloys:
Electrical Industry: Electrical Switch and Relay Blades, Fuse Clips, Switch Parts, Relay parts, Connectors, Spring Connectors, Contact Bridges, Belleville Washers, Navigational Instruments, Clips
Fasteners: Washers, Fasteners, Lock Washers, Retaining Rings, Roll Pins, Screws, Bolts
Industrial: Pumps, Springs, Electrochemical, Shafts, Non-Sparking Safety Tools, Flexible Metal Hose, Housings for Instruments, Bearings, Bushings, Valve Seats, Valve Stems, Diaphragms, Springs, Welding Equipment, Rolling Mill Parts, Spline Shafts, Pump Parts, Valves, Bourdon Tubes, Wear Plates on Heavy Equipment, Bellows, Mining parts

International Specification:
Rods/Bars/Tubes: ASTM B196,251,463; SAE J461,463; AMS 4533,4534,4535; AMS4650,4651;
RWMA Class 4
Strips: ASTM B194, AMS4530,4532; SAE J461,463
Sheets: ASTM B194
Wires: ASTM B197, AMS4725, SAE J461,463
Plates: ASTM B194, SAE J461,463; AMS4530,4533,4534,AMS4650,4651; RWMA Class 4.
European Standards: CuBe2, DIN 2.1247, CW101C to EN

Note:
ASTM: American Society for Testing and Materials
SAE: Society of Automotive Engineers
AMS: Aerospace Materials Specification (Published by SAE)
RWMA: Resistance Welder Manufacturers' Association
Note: Unless otherwise specified, material will be produced to ASTM.

Properties

    The best combination of characteristics of the copper-based alloy

The copper-beryllium alloys have a wide combination of mechanical and electrical properties which is unique for copper alloys. The mechanical strength achieved after heat treatment ranks

highest amongst all the copper alloy materials and is combined with a high electrical conductivity which outperforms that of bronzes.

High Strength & Elastic Modulus

    Beryllium Copper alloys can achieve very high mechanical properties after heat treatment, up to 1500 Mpa in tensile strength and hardness as high as 450 Vickers.

    The strength of these alloys allow for the design of smaller, lighter components that can endure high bending stresses when used as springs material.

Bending Formability

    Beryllium Copper can be formed into complicated shapes in an annealed or cold-worked temper.

The highest mechanical properties can be achieved with proper heat-treatment after forming.

High Fatigue Strength

    Beryllium Copper exhibits excellent resistance to fatigue under reverse bending (up to 300 MPa) which qualifies its use in applications where other alloy fail to provide the same level of reliability.

High Electrical conductivity

    Beryllium Copper exhibit a high electrical conductivity ranges from 22 to 70% IACS depending on the alloys and temper. Beryllium Copper is often used as high current density spring material.

Heat treatment

    Heat treatment is the most important process for this alloy system. While all copper alloys are hardenable by cold working, beryllium copper is unique in being hardenable by a simple low temperature thermal treatment. It involves two basic steps. The first is called solution annealing and the second, precipitation or age hardening.

Solution Annealing

    For the typical alloy CuBe1.9 (1.8- 2%) the alloy is heated between 720°C and 860°C. At this point the contained beryllium is essentially “dissolved” in the copper matrix (alpha phase). By rapidly quenching to room temperature this solid solution structure is retained. The material at this stage is very soft and ductile and can be readily cold worked by drawing, forming rolling, or cold heading. The solution annealing operation is part of the process at the mill and is not typically used by the customer. Temperature, time at temperature, quench rate, grain size, and hardness are all very critical parameters and are tightly controlled by ohmalloy.

Age Hardening

    Age hardening significantly enhances the material’s strength. This reaction is generally carried out at temperatures between 260°C and 540°C depending on alloy and desired characteristics. This cycle causes the dissolved beryllium to precipitate as a beryllium rich (gamma) phase in the matrix and at the grain boundaries. It is the formation of this precipitate which causes the large increase in material strength. The level of mechanical properties attained is determined by the temperature and time at temperature. It should be recognized that beryllium copper has no room temperature aging characteristics.

Application

Our alloys combine a range of properties particularly suited to meet the exacting requirements of many applications in the automotive, electronic, aeronautical, Oil&Gas, watch, electro-chemical industries, etc. Beryllium Copper is widely used in those fields as contact springs in various applications like connectors, switches, relays, etc