McLaren beryllium pistons

[vinuneuro]

Thanks, yes I meant Al-Be alloy used by Merc/Illmor. Looking at the piston supplier thread richard_leeds kindly linked, it seems that Illmor/Merc produce their own pistons. An amazing fact on its own, and even more so when you consider the development cost of these must have been enormous over just two cars (and more so since banned relatively quickly).

[mep]

I think they where supplied by Mahle. Seems to be obvious as Mahle is located in Stuttgart.
I know for sure that Mahle supplies Ferrari.

[Tommy Cookers]

When comparing different metals for stiffness-dependent applications such as a piston,
taking Young's modulus over Density is usually a good stiffness-to-mass index;

Steel: 2.1 E11 / 7800 = 26.9 E6
Aluminium: 0.7 E11 / 2700 = 25.9 E6
Titanium: 1.1 E11 / 4500 = 24.4 E6

Look at that, almost the same index, you didn't xpect that now, did you fellow members?

But look at this;
Beryllium: 2.9 E11 / 1850 = 157 E6 !!!

I expected the above, but understand your point

BTW you should add Magnesium to your list


(100% or near) Beryllium, as you say, is most unusual

it (unaturally)combines high thermal capacity with high thermal conductivity, hence its brief use as brake discs

it is very brittle (ie very low fracture work), any normal application would have a fatigue life close to zero
(its main use is in nukes, as it helps rather than hinders the nuclear reactions and fatigue life is unimportant)


alloyed with aluminium it has never succeeded in Aerospace (due to fatigue life ? similarly Maraging steel is hardly used)
in 'disposable' F1 such alloys makes sense - thanks all round for the informative posts
(piston weight (hence rpm and power) benefits due to remarkable conduction of combustion heat across the crown and down into the walls , helped by heat storage with little temperature rise)
(block castings would save weight, also it would make a good NASCAR pushrod if allowed)

it has long been used alloyed with Copper ie 1-2% Be (Beryllium Copper, aka Beryllium Bronze?)
(as mentioned elsewhere this makes an outstanding valve seat, due to strength, good heat conduction and useful expansion)

around the 2% Be content it can have mechanical properties unavailable elsewhere, the strength/elastic limit of an outstanding steel, but a much lower elastic/Youngs modulus
this makes the perfect spring material for some applications eg F1 suspension flexures (but for the 'double ban')
(allowing a more practical thickness than a steel spring element)

(it will return perfectly from 10000 ppm strain, no steel can beat 7500 ppm)

[xpensive]

Modulus over density:

Steel: 2.1 E11 / 7800 = 26.9 E6

Aluminium: 0.7 E11 / 2700 = 25.9 E6

Titanium: 1.1 E11 / 4500 = 24.4 E6

Magnesium: 0.45 E11 / 1740 = 25.9 E6

Beryllium: 2.9 E11 / 1850 = 157 E6 !!!

[olefud]

As an aside, we use BeCu in a nonautomotive application. The dust problem is avoided by etching the desired forms, though this is obviously a limiting process as to what can be shaped. I suspect that with the right set up -such as including a rotary axis- more complex dust-free parts could be made by EDM.

[Pierce89]

Who supplied them, was it Mahle?

Ilmore machined them themselves.

[JohnsonsEvilTwin]

Who supplied them, was it Mahle?

Ilmore machined them themselves.

From my information this is correct. Mercedes-ilmor machined it themselves at brixworth.
A conversation I had with the much missed 747heavy is floating around on f1tech somewhere, will make interesting reading for the thread starter.