Sound technical content, curated with aloha by
Ted Mooney, P.E. RET
Pine Beach, NJ
The authoritative public forum
for Metal Finishing since 1989
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How to Heat treat Beryllium Copper
Q. We are a heat treating house; we are wondering how to heat treat Beryllium copper alloy 172 to 1/2 hard. Sheet stock .008.
Thanks;
Terry Rocheford- Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA
2002
A. Terry, generally 172 would be procured in the half hard condition and aged at 600 ± 5 °F for about 2 hours. I'd expect a Rockwell C hardness of 37 min, although you'll have to translate that from microhardness.
Give the good folks at Brush Wellman a call should you have any questions. I've found their technical service engineers to be very helpful. They're on the web.
Good luck! 
Lee Gearhart
metallurgist - E. Aurora, New York
Q. I have 1/4 hard beryllium copper. I need a process to harden it to 79n hardness. Can you give me process or a place where I can get the spec?
G Zyskowskimetal finishing - Paterson, New Jersey
A. Hello G!
I'm assuming that what you want is 79 minimum on the Rockwell 15N scale (N brale indentor, 3 kg minor load, 15 kg major load). That translates to roughly 37-38 Rockwell C. If your beryllium copper is C17200 alloy, you can get there with a 2 hour at 600 °F aging treatment. If it is C17000, you can get in that range, but I wouldn't bet on a 79 minimum: probably closer to 77. If you've got C17410, C17500, or C17510, you'd better hope that you're being asked for the 30T scale rather than 15N. But those alloys aren't as common in the quarter hard condition, so chances are my first guess is the correct one...
Brush Wellman has a swell booklet, "Guide to Beryllium Copper", http://www.busbymetals.com/pdf/guide_to_be_cu.pdf [Ed. note: see Lee's entry below with updated address for this document].
Good luck!
Lee Gearhart
metallurgist - E. Aurora, New York
Q. I have beryllium copper material. I need to harden to 45HRC. Please give me a spec. to get this 45HRC.
PANNEERSELVAM- SINGAPORE
2006
Q. I want 340HV for beryllium copper alloy. Please suggest necessary heat treatment process.
Thanks and regards
aeronautic - Secunderabad, India
October 16, 2012
Hi Panneerselvam; Hi Radhakrisha. Could you folks please download the previously referenced guide and try your best to phrase the continuing questions in terms of what information presented in the booklet may be inadequate or confusing? There is a hardness conversion chart in the booklet. Our readers may be able to provide answers to flesh out any information that is lacking in the booklet, but if we simply post repetitive questions in various hardness scales we'll probably weaken the value of this forum page rather than strengthen it :-)
Lee's answers and the booklet seem to imply that your questions can't be answered until you find out the alloy composition anyway. Thanks, and good luck!
Regards,
Ted Mooney, P.E.
Striving to live Aloha
finishing.com - Pine Beach, New Jersey
October 16, 2012
Thanks Mr. Lee Gearhart. The pdf document was so helpful.
- Hyderabad, India
October 27, 2012
A. Just as an update, Brush is now Materion, and their technical information has been revised. You can find it here:
http://materion.com/ResourceCenter/ProductData/Alloys/CopperBerylliumWroughtAlloys/TechnicalPapers.aspx
and there is a specific Tech Brief on Heat Treating of the beryllium copper alloys.
If a heat treatment specification is desired, I would suggest considering AMS2728, on "Heat Treatment of Wrought Copper Beryllium Alloy Parts". It mandates times, temperatures, furnace controls and acceptance criteria acceptable to the aerospace industry.
Good luck!
Lee Gearhart
metallurgist - E. Aurora, New York
October 29, 2012
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Ed. note July 2013: Ack! It's impossible to keep up with internet broken links :-)
But for today at least you can find the Brush Wellman article at
http://www.matthey.ch/fileadmin/user_upload/downloads/Fichiers_PDF/GuideToCopperBeryllium_EN.pdf
Download it TODAY because you probably won't find it for free for very long.
The "Tech Brief" that Lee mentions is currently at
http://materion.com/~/media/Files/PDFs/Alloy/Tech%20Briefs/AT0015-0311%20-%20Tech%20Briefs%20-%20Heat%20Treating%20Copper%20Beryllium%20Parts.pdf
Q. Dear Sir
I want to know what is the best material for stud welding collets and how to reach that toughness and flexibility.
Tool Making - Tehran, Iran
May 13, 2013
Q. CAN WE HEAT TREAT BERYLLIUM COPPER AT 200 °C
SANJEEV CHANDELAUTO COMPONENTS - New Delhi, INDIA
July 18, 2013
Q. Can I use Copper beryllium C17200 (alloy 25) 0.3mm strip, 1/4H or 1/2H and perform the same Heat tretament of 1/4HT on them?
Will I get the same results with both 1/4H and 1/2H after the same heat treatment (1/4HT)?
Thanks
Pini
- Tel Aviv, Israel
September 24, 2013
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