Differentiating Aluminium Bronze and Beryllium Copper

[Rorschach]

As above, anyone know how to? Google has not been very helpful.

 

[AES]

Apart from finding a specialist lab (expensive I guess) I have NO idea mate, sorry.

Just as a matter of interest, why? I GUESS some bearing job/s in sight?

 

[Rorschach]

I have a non sparking tool I am selling for someone, from what I can see they can be made of either AB or BC, if I can confirm it's BC then it's worth 2-3x more than the AB version. Unfortunately no markings on the tool itself.

 

[AES]

Ah, OK, understood. As said before, I just dunno, sorry.

 

[sunnybob]

Aluminium bronze is softer than beryllium copper.

AB is 27 on the rockwell HRC scale
BC is 38.
Of course this only helps if you have one of each to compare side by side.
Or have access to a hardness tester.
Are you sure there are no numbers anywhere on the tool?

 

[Rorschach]

No hardness tester, no known tool for comparison and I checked thoroughly, no markings at all despite it being a brand new tool.

 

[sunnybob]

Sell it for the highest price and make them prove you wrong.
you could always refund the difference

 

[Sideways]

I thought that colour might be a telltale but both seems to have a range of colour.

AB have about 6-11% ally, BC has typically 2-3% Be, so there will be some difference in density, but I doubt I could pull off a measurement accurately enough to tell.

Good question for the trade association copperalliance.org.uk Their technical gurus might fancy the puzzle ...

 

[MikeK]

If the tool has a uniform density, you might try determining the specific gravity of it. Aluminum Bronze and Beryllium Copper have different specific gravities, but you will need an accurate scale and distilled water to test it.