Identifying Beryllium Copper contacts in RF connectors
Is there any way to identify if their central conductor is made of Beryllium copper, as I want to throw these away.
Is Beryllium copper elastic, so that if I see a BNC central conductor bent a bit, that means that it is not made of this material?
What is the color of this material?
Is it shiny or mat in appearance?
Does it contained in these cheap Cinese connectors or only the expensive ones?
Is it inside a plated conductor or it can be all the way out?
Beryllium copper is an excellent strong, flexible conductor but is normally plated with Nickel or Gold for body and pin or socket.
Other materials tend to be silver contacts or brass with gold plating and or brass body with nickel plating and more likely to be less flexible and have bent pins.
Brass would be slightly cheaper.
That is what I have found too. All the BeCu-containing connectors, contain BeCu internally, then they are plated outside.
However I worry, because I have some worn out connectors, where the nickel or gold plating has worn out. I wonder if micro-dust is of big concern in these. What I mean by micro-dust is the very fine particles (usually appear as a dirty connector) when I plug in and out the connector.
berrylium copper can look bent, but when you push on the bent bit, it will snap back to the bent position like a spring. bent brass will just stay in the new position you bend it to.
beryllium copper looks just like copper to me, maybe just a little hint of a browner color. but it is usually plated, so you would not know.
What I worry about most is these worn out connectors.
Some time I used some connectors that were so worn out that their internal threat (nickel plated) had come out and probably the BeCu was exposed. I have noticed some color like the brass.
Now I did not file the connector, but these very very tiny particles (dust) each time the connector was plugged out couldn't end up somehow in my lungs?
Some times (I did not know back then) I cut the excessive middle pin of some high quality SMA connectors using a cutter and then soldered it. Now I did not file it, but I did a cut, so I wonder how serious this ended up to be?
My feeling is that most high quality connectors contain this material. Eventhough it is usually plated, no-one warns people that use these and do not know, about the dangers. If this thing is so damn toxic, why they won't find an alternative?
As far as I know, it isn't toxic unless inhaled as dust. It is not toxic by skin contact and has limited toxicity if ingested. Most of the warnings in electronics usage seem to relate to mishandling RF power transistor packages where fracturing the ceramic casings may chip off particles of beryllium oxide. On connectors, the risk of dust 'wiping' off contacts is very low.
Brian.
As far as I can understand BeCu is a material that is used in more expensive and high quality connectors and correct me if wrong.
Should I expect these Chinese cheap connectors that can be bought from hobby electronics shops or ebay, to contain such a material?
If not, then maybe a hobbyist should consider replacing these with cheap types, although not so good.
Consider that copper beryllium alloy is used for most spring contacts, e.g. the female center contact of any RF connector.
I believe that the risk to incorporate a harmful amount beryllium dust during regular use of RF connectors is very low. Risks must be surely observed in connector and pre-product fabs. I can also imagine that some service jobs e.g. maintenance of slip ring contacts (if they involve CuBe springs) are critical.