Beryllium Oxide Question

Status
Not open for further replies.
Hello,

I rescently bought what i thought were beryllium oxide pads off of ebay, but when they arrived, they are flexible and seem to be plastic-like. Was the seller mistaken? I thought that beryllium was a brittle ceramic-like substance. I have arranged to return the item but want to check before giving them back.

Thanks!
-Chris
 
Beryllium

Isn't Beryllium so toxic
that it is undesirable to use it any more?
I know it is the material with lowest termal resistence.
It is a question about to preserve our beloved environment.

Be can give you cronical poisioning with
astmatical troubles, in your lungs
And it is cancer producing

In Sweden products with beryllium is forbidden to sell.

I think you should praise the lord for not sending you Beryllium
:angel:
I would rather have some Watt less
than a lifelong suffering with breathing
 
psychokids said:
Hello,

I rescently bought what i thought were beryllium oxide pads off of ebay, but when they arrived, they are flexible and seem to be plastic-like. Was the seller mistaken? I thought that beryllium was a brittle ceramic-like substance. I have arranged to return the item but want to check before giving them back.

Thanks!
-Chris

I'm using mostly berillium oxide pads. When handled properly thay are no danger to me😉 and you are right, they should be a brittle ceramic-like, white substance. I once tried to trim one on a belt sander, but I didn't succed. 😉

There are also aluminum oxide pads and they look very close to beryllium ones.
 
Thank you all, I have my answer. I'm guessing that i have a bunch of nylon or other off-white plastic disks which sadly i have no use for. Oh well, at least i get my 20 bucks back, and i still have my big mica sheets...

Thanks!
-Chris
 
High performance insulators like the Bergquist K-10 are designed to replace ceramic insulators. They have a Kapton film dielectric barrier to protect against cut-through, combined with a Boron Nitride filled silicon rubber. They can cost more than the transistor they mount.

The problem is that they look the same as the $0.50 non filled ones. The $0.03 Mica washers and grease have a lower thermal resistance than the cheap rubber ones.

Unless the seller can provide proof of what they are I would return them.
 
Avoid beryllia!

Beryllia (beryllium oxide) is a hard, brittle ceramic with high thermal conductivity (it almost feels like a piece of metal when you handle it). It is not so toxic in solid form, but any dust formed by machining beryllia is highly toxic.

It is unlikely that any flexible insulator contains beryllia due to the hazards of handling it in fine particle form. As mentioned previously, boron nitride is the usual filler in high performance thermally conductive flexible insulators, although alumina (aluminum oxide) is sometimes used. These types of insulators can work very well.

Beryllia is sometimes contained in power semiconductor packages, and these are usually clearly labeled with at least "BeO" to warn the user not to drill, machine, or perform any other operations that may result in dust.

A little story about beryllia:

When I was in graduate school, a student (in another building/department) successfully sued the school when it was discovered that an improperly installed ventilation hood was venting beryllia dust into his lab. By the time this was discovered, he was pretty much stuck spending the rest of his life in a wheelchair due to mostly diminished lung capacity. All the money in the world won't get his breath back. He probably got a lot higher dosage than most, but be warned.

John
 
I bring this old topic back to life - so there is no possibility that white, thin, flexible insulator would be containing berillium ...

I mean - more than a year ago I got some smaller power supplies from big IBM's CPU unit ... And ofcourse I've dissassembled them - there were also white, thin shets of some insulating material - that have some fibers and some dust when cutted ... I guess that's just normal silicone or some kind of similar insulator ...
 
Status
Not open for further replies.