Beryllium has the strongest ability to transmit X-rays and is known as “metallic glass”. Its alloys are irreplaceable strategic metal materials in aviation, aerospace, military, electronics, nuclear energy and other fields. Beryllium bronze is an elastic alloy with the best performance among copper alloys. It has the advantages of good thermal conductivity, electrical conductivity, heat resistance, wear resistance, corrosion resistance, non-magnetic, small elastic lag, and no sparks when impacted. It is widely used in national defense, Instruments, instruments, computers, automobiles, home appliances and other industries. Beryllium-copper-tin alloys are used to manufacture springs that work at high temperatures, which maintain good elasticity and toughness under red heat, and beryllium oxide can be used as heat-resistant fillers for high-temperature thermocouples.

At the beginning, because the smelting technology is not up to standard, the smelted beryllium contains impurities, which is brittle, difficult to process, and easy to oxidize when heated. Therefore, a small amount of beryllium can only be used in special cases, such as used in X-ray tubes. Light-transmitting small windows, parts of neon lights, etc. Later, the application of beryllium appeared in broad and important new fields – especially the manufacture of beryllium copper alloy – beryllium bronze.
As we all know, copper is much softer than steel, and its elasticity and resistance to corrosion are not strong. But after adding some beryllium to copper, copper’s properties changed dramatically. In particular, beryllium bronze containing 1 to 3.5 percent of beryllium has excellent mechanical properties, enhanced hardness, excellent elasticity, high corrosion resistance, and high electrical conductivity. In particular, springs made of beryllium bronze can be compressed hundreds of millions of times.

The indomitable beryllium bronze is used to manufacture deep-sea probes and submarine cables, which is of great significance for the development of marine resources. Another important feature of nickel-containing beryllium bronze is that it does not spark when struck. Therefore, this feature is very useful for explosives factories. Because flammable and explosive materials are very afraid of fire, such as explosives and detonators, they will explode when they see fire. Iron hammers, drills and other tools often emit sparks when they are used, which is very dangerous. Undoubtedly, nickel-containing beryllium bronze is the most suitable material to make these tools.

Nickel-containing beryllium bronze is not attracted to magnets and is not magnetized by magnetic fields, making it an excellent material for magnetically shielded parts. In addition, in recent years, beryllium, which has a small specific gravity, high strength and good elasticity, has been used as a mirror for high-precision TV faxing, and the effect is very good, because it only takes a few minutes to send a photo.

Beryllium has been an unknown “little person” in resources for a long time, and has not been paid much attention by people. But in the 1950s, beryllium resources turned around and became a hot commodity for scientists.

In order to liberate a large amount of energy from the nucleus, scientists need to bombard the nucleus with great force, so that the nucleus splits, just like bombarding a solid explosive depot with a cannonball and causing the explosive depot to explode. The “cannonball” used to bombard the nucleus is called neutron, and beryllium is a very efficient “neutron source” that can provide a large number of neutron cannonballs. In the atomic boiler, only neutrons “ignite” is not enough. After ignition, it is necessary to make it really “fire and burn”.