With regards to "beryllium" fingers, they are not beryllium. They are an alloy of copper and beryllium, with the standard C17000 alloy containing only 1.7% beryllium.
There is no danger in simply handling these fingers. To be sure, there is a danger in breathing in dust from machining actual beryllium. This danger is less for Be-Cu alloy (owing to the low beryllium content). But this is not particularly relevant here because it is unlikely that any operation will be carried out that can create any significant beryllium "dust" when simply cleaning Be-Cu fingers. Further, these fingers are generally plated with another metal to eliminate poor contact due to tarnishing or corrosion, so one is generally not even touching the Be-Cu alloy at all. Bob Wilson TIR Systems Ltd. Vancouver. -----Original Message----- From: Wan Juang Foo [mailto:[email protected]] Sent: February 19, 2002 2:08 AM To: ieee pstc list Subject: Re: Chamber Doors The other problem could be that whoever build the chamber did not make the door. They buy it off from someone else and the warranty is only one year. :-) One year seems to be reasonable period considering that there is a number of things that can go wrong with moving parts that are constantly held under pressure. BTW, 'Be' (Beryllium) is a highly toxic metal that will not get out of your blood once it enters it. I would strongly advise anyone cleaning their Be-Cu finger stocks from exposing themselves to any possibilities of cuts or abrassions while cleaning these 'fingers'. I understand the concentrations of Be is low but why would anyone take the risk of prolonged exposure to Be dust and metal chippings? Tim Foo ------------------------------------------- This message is from the IEEE EMC Society Product Safety Technical Committee emc-pstc discussion list. Visit our web site at: http://www.ewh.ieee.org/soc/emcs/pstc/ To cancel your subscription, send mail to: [email protected] with the single line: unsubscribe emc-pstc For help, send mail to the list administrators: Ron Pickard: [email protected] Dave Heald: [email protected] For policy questions, send mail to: Richard Nute: [email protected] Jim Bacher: [email protected] All emc-pstc postings are archived and searchable on the web at: http://ieeepstc.mindcruiser.com/ Click on "browse" and then "emc-pstc mailing list"
