Pub. 3 2013 Issue 1

22 At the Center of Utah Industry How Beryllium Benefits Medical Experts E meralds and aquamarines contain ber yllium, which is an alkaline earth metal. But beryllium is even more valuable when it is combined with metals such as copper or nickel because then it can also conduct heat and electricity. Beryllium can be a good choice for any engineering application involving heat, because it doesn’t melt below 1560 K and it doesn’t boil until 2742 K. In addition, it is both strong and light, and it is highly nonreactive. The only metal that is lighter is lithium, yet it is about six times stronger than steel. Beryllium alloys have found useful applications in medical equipment, including surgical instruments: • I t t r ansmi t s p r ec i se e l ec t r i c a l signals through delicate surgical i ns t r umen t s t ha t have c oppe r beryllium connectors. Surgeons use these instruments during the most advanced surgeries being done today, where the goal is to be either minimally invasive or noninvasive. The benefit of this kind of surgery is reduced trauma for the patient and a smaller risk of infection, making it possible for a patient to recover faster than would be possible otherwise. • Beryllium is both stable and strong, it resists heat, and x-rays go right through it. That makes beryllium foil ideal for the equipment used by medical staff or scientists because it can contain the vacuum that exists inside an x- ray tube generator, but it does not prevent x-rays from traveling through the window it creates for them. • With beryllium, only a small dose of radiation needs to be used in order to produce a sharp image that will accurately show an extremely small tumor. Since no one wants to expose patients to more radiation than necessary, and diseases such as breast cancer are most treatable in the early stages, this advantage is a significant one. • Ber yllium can be used to make beryllia ceramic, a material found in the small medical lasers used by opthalmologists, such as excimer lasers. Ber yllia ceramic has the dialectic properties, the strength, and the thermal conductivity necessary to control the gas laser bores, which are extremely small but powerful. Ber yllium has a higher thermal conductivity than some metals, and the only other nonmetal with a higher thermal conductivity is diamond. • Beryllium is precise and reliable, making it a suitable candidate for the analytical equipment that studies blood samples containing HIV or other diseases. X Beryllium is both stable and strong, it resists heat, and x-rays go right through it. That makes beryllium foil ideal for the equipment used by medical staff or scientists because it can contain the vacuum that exists inside an x-ray tube generator, but it does not prevent x-rays from traveling through the window it creates for them.