Why Can Beryllium Metal Be Applied For Missile?

Beryllium metal is a material with a relatively special performance, some properties of which are irreplaceable by any other metal materials, especially nuclear properties and physical properties. Beryllium is mainly concentrated in the nuclear industry, the application scope of the weapon system, aerospace industry, X-ray instruments, electronic information systems, automotive industry, household electrical appliances, and other fields. As the research progressed, its application range has a trend of expanding.

Why Can Beryllium Metal Be Applied For Missile?

Beryllium has three big good qualities that prompt it to replace steel, titanium, and aluminum metal quickly and become the ideal material to make gyroscopes.

The Unique Qualities Of The Beryllium Metal 

The first quality is good thermal properties. The coefficient of thermal conductivity of beryllium is 3 times of steel, copper is five times, and the thermal expansion coefficient is less than half of magnesium.

The gyroscope in the high-speed rotating rotor produces a large amount of heat, good thermal performance makes the heat distribution in the gyro evenly to reduce the internal stress of it. The smaller thermal expansion coefficient reduced the deformation of the gyro further.

The second quality is excellent mechanical properties. The proportion of beryllium is 1/3 of titanium, two-thirds of aluminum alloy, and the elastic modulus is 3 times of titanium, aluminum, and magnesium, 5 and 7 times respectively. Its specific strength is 1.7 times aluminum alloy, magnesium alloy 2.1 times, and 1.5 times steel.

This means that the gyro skeleton can be lighter and stronger. Changing a three-stage missile inertial navigation system's structure to beryllium metal can reduce the system by several kilograms of weight, thus reducing the burden of the overall system from the missile guidance control system greatly.

Beryllium Metal

The third quality is super stability. If there is a one percent micro of deviation in the gyro rotor centroid position, it will bring the error of the hundreds of meters long-range missiles. The appearance of beryllium metal can keep stable and bounce back quickly even after a lot of stress.

Beryllium surface has oxidation and corrosion resistance without any surface treatment which is even stronger than most stainless steel materials that had a variety of anti-corrosive treatments. (The surface of beryllium can form an oxidation layer that avoids further oxidation by air effectively; To be heated to above 1000 ° C, beryllium will continue to react and air.)

Thank you for reading our article and we hope you enjoyed it. If you want to know more about beryllium metal, you can visit Advanced Refractory Metals (ARM) for more information.