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Topic: Beryllium sheet thining?  (Read 3339 times)

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Offline agoo

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Beryllium sheet thining?
« on: August 19, 2020, 01:03:34 AM »
I have a small beryllium sheet (10x10mm with 300 micron thickness). I need to thin down this to about 50 micron thick. Anyone can suggest a proper method and solution?

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Offline Enthalpy

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Re: Beryllium sheet thining?
« Reply #1 on: August 19, 2020, 08:29:23 PM »
Bad luck.

Beryllium uses to be brittle, so rolling and hammering would be difficult. If you heat the beryllium to ease the operation, beryllium will oxidise and become very brittle.

You might try to glue the beryllium sheet on a flat part. Cyano glue can be really thin. Then you mill the beryllium down. I would NOT grind it because this will produce powder of beryllium, and worse, of beryllium oxide, which is toxic.

Cleanliness is a big issue. You want beryllium for its X-ray transparency usually, and any pollution absorbs W-rays more than the beryllium base: oxygen from air, carbon from the glue and the cutting fluid, metals from anywhere.

I wonder if a microtome could have enough hardness and strength to cut beryllium. Probably not.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microtome

Please take care of your health.

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