Beryllium Copper (CuBe)

Beryllium Copper Alloy:  C17200

The most popular alloy in the copper beryllium family is UNS C17200 and is commonly known as beryllium copper Alloy 25. In Europe, this alloy is referred to as CuBe2. It has 1.8 – 2% Beryllium and is the hardest and strongest copper beryllium material widely used. Applications include injection mold tooling cores and cavities, oil and gas drilling tool components, aerospace bushings, and heavy equipment wear plates and bushings. The terms “beryllium copper” and “copper beryllium” or even beryllium bronze are used interchangeably. Also, CuBe and BeCu are abbreviations that are frequently written. C17200 (Alloy 25) is a high performance alloy and so it is important to have confidence in your supplier. Our casting plants have been casting copper beryllium for over 20 years. With our in-house forging, heat treatment, and machining, with flexibility to provide many required sizes and shapes with short lead times and excellent quality. Our hot working equipment includes a 1500 ton forge press, multiple hammer forges, and a ring rolling mill. In our machine shop, we have CNC’s, horizontal and vertical lathes, and large plate mills.

C17200 Beryllium Copper is manufactured to provide a combination of high strength and hardness properties coupled with superior thermal properties. This range of properties makes C17200 Beryllium Copper the premier material for copper alloy molds and a wide range of other applications from oil and gas to aerospace.

Beryllium Copper plate products have very low impurity levels, are fully dense and structurally sound with excellent machining and fabrication properties and a consistent, homogeneous fine grained micro-structure. We stock plates up to 12” thick and custom forge blocks up to 24” thick. Customers are not limited to standard mill dimensions for large plates – we can forge a plate with dimensions that best meets the customer’s needs. Round bar from 1” diameter and up is available, and rings up to 72” OD can also be supplied according to the customer’s drawing.

Australian Metals can also source the lower beryllium content alloys, including C17510 commonly known as Alloy 3, and C17500 or Alloy 10. These alloys have higher thermal and electrical conductivity, but lower hardness and strength when compared to C17200. Additionally, we have an alloy called CCNB or CuCoNiBe with higher hardness than either Alloy 3 or Alloy 10. Applications for the low-beryllium alloys include welding components, die-casting plunger tips, and blow-mold cores, cavities, and pinch-offs. Once again, these alloys are cast, forged, heat treated and machined entirely in-house. For example, we manufacture welding wheels in these alloys by individually forging for the best possible grain structure and ultimate durability and performance.

Applications of C17200

C17200 Beryllium Copper is typically used in spring connectors, current carrying, fuse clips, belleville washers, electrical switch and relay blades, navigational instruments, clips, contact bridges, connectors, relay parts, switch parts, fasteners, washers, screws, bolts, roll pins, retaining rings, lock washers, housings for instruments, springs, non-sparking safety tools, shafts, pumps, springs, electrochemical, bushings, valve seats, valve stems, flexible metal hose, bourdon tubes, wear plates on heavy equipment, bellows, diaphragms, welding equipment, rolling mill parts, bearings, valves, pump parts, spline shafts, firing pins, and tools.

Forms Supplied:

C17200 Beryllium Copper in rings, discs, bars, rods and plates.