Beryllia crucible

The magnesium-reduced beryllium pebbles generally assay 96% beryllium and are always associated with residual magnesium and slag. These pebbles are purified to about 99.5% by vacuum induction melting in beryllia crucibles at temperatures of about 1400 °C. The ingots are machined and machined scarf is milled to produce beryllium powder. The ground metal powder is pressed and sintered under vacuum. The product is called vacuum hot-pressed beryllium, and this is machined for component manufacture. 

Fig. 5.11. Vacuum reactor for chlorination of metals. A Reaction vessel (100 ml) B beryllia crucible containing titanium metal C silica cradle D crucible support also serving as evacuation duct, and finally sealed off at the top at E F capillary tube G duct for breaker H appendix containing liquid chlorine J fragile capillary tip K weighted glass breaker L glass-coated magnetic retainer.

Curium trifluoride cun be reduced tn Ihc metal hy healing ill 275 C in a beryllia crucible wilh barium vapor. The metal is silvery in color and has the properties of an electropositive element in common wilh the other Actinide elements. 

After the reactor was cooled to room temperature, it was opened and the mass of metal was mechanically freed of frozen slag. Ninety percent of the zinc in the alloy was removed by distillation in a retort heated to 1150°C at a vacuum lower than 0.2 Torr. The retort was then filled with argon or helium to prevent oxidation of the spongy thorium and cooled to room temperature. The thorium was transferred to a beryllia crucible in an induction-heated vacuum furnace for melting, evaporation of the residual zinc, and casting into a graphite mold. Thorium metal yield was 94 to 96 percent. 

The almost spherical beads are washed with hot water in a rubber-lined tumbler vessel to leach out calcium chloride and remove any adhering magnesium fluoride crystals. They are next rinsed in cold water and dried in a steam-heated oven. The beads are then vacuum-melted in beryllia crucibles, and the metal cast into large ingots, with simultaneous removal of traces of magnesium and halides. 

Typically, Be-containing alloys and intermetallic phases have been prepared in beryllia or alumina crucibles Mg-containing products have been synthesized in graphite, magnesia or alumina crucibles. Alloys and compounds containing Ca, Sr and Ba have been synthesized in alumina , boron nitride, zircon, molybdenum, iron , or steel crucibles. Both zircon and molybdenum are satisfactory only for alloys with low group-IIA metal content and are replaced by boron nitride and iron, respectively, for group-IIA metal-rich systems . Crucibles are sealed in silica, quartz, iron or steel vessels, usually under either vacuum or purified inert cover gas in a few cases, the samples were melted under a halide flux . 

Arfwedson fused the chrysoberyl three times with caustic potash in a silver crucible. Since a portion of the melt corresponding to about 18 per cent of the mineral failed to dissolve in hydrochloric acid, he reported this residue as silica. It is now known that beryllium hydroxide, when freshly precipitated, dissolves readily in hydrochloric acid, but becomes after a time almost completely insoluble in it (17). Therefore, it is probable that Arfwedson s silica was really the beryllium hydroxide. He then precipitated the alumina by adding ammonium hydroxide to the acid filtrate. To satisfy himself of the purity of his alumina, he saturated the alkaline solution with hydrochloric acid until the precipitate dissolved, and added a large excess of ammonium carbonate. Had any glucina [beryllia] or yttria existed in the matter, said Arfwedson, it would have been dissolved by this excess of carbonate of ammonia, and would have fallen when the filtered liquid was boiled till the excess of ammonia was driven off but the liquid stood this test without any precipitate appearing. Arfwedson was evidently unable to detect beryllia here because he had already filtered it off and reported it as silica. When American chemist Henry Seybert analyzed the same mineral in 1824 he found it to contain 15 to 16 per cent of beryllia (22). 

Slip-casting of technical ceramics has been steadily introduced over the past 60 years or so, and now it is standard practice to cast alumina crucibles and large tubes. The process has been successfully extended to include silica, beryllia, magnesia, zirconia, silicon (to make the preforms for reaction-bonded silicon nitride articles) and mixtures of silicon carbide and carbon (to make the preforms for a variety of self-bonded silicon carbide articles). Many metallics and intermetallics, including tungsten, molybdenum, chromium, WC, ZrC and MoSi2, have also been successfully slip-cast. 

Sibeon. A solid solution between P-silicon nitride and beryllia, developed as a crucible material for molten silicon. Side Arch. A brick with the two largest faces symmetrically inclined towards each other, see Fig. 1, p39. 

Major applications for BeO ceramics include microwave tube parts substrates and mounting platforms for power transistors crucibles for melting uranium, thorium, and beryllium and numerous uses in the nuclear reactor industry because of beryllia s high thermal conductivity and ability to moderate fast neutrons. 

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