New trends in powder processing beryllium-containing alloys

Beryllium combines light weight, a high modulus, and excellent thermal properties, which makes it very attractive for aerospace and space applications as well as fusion, motion control, and high-performance automotive applications, to name a few. Powder-metallurgical processing is required for beryllium and aluminum-beryllium and beryllium-beryllium oxide composites for different technical reasons. Beryllium is an expensive engineering material, and considerable effort has been made in the last 15 years to make if more cost competitive through net-shape processing.