Brush Wellman Awarded U.S. Patents for Alloy Products.

CLEVELAND--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Aug. 16, 1999--

Brush Wellman Inc. (NYSE:BW) today announced that the United States Patent Office has awarded patents to Brush Wellman, Inc. for its Brush 60(TM) and Alloy 171(TM) products, both of which are low-cost beryllium copper (BeCu) alloys.

Co-developers of the two alloys are John Harkness, FASM, supervisor of Brush Wellman's alloy research and development and Shelley Wolf, senior technologist, alloy research and development.

Harkness said the patents are significant because the alloys cover "the novel addition of small, defined amounts of zirconium or titanium to copper beryllium alloys to markedly improve stress relaxation resistance." Outside the critical addition range "relaxation resistance is either not enhanced, or strength and conductivity are degraded," Harkness added.

Patents for the alloys cover both the chemistry for optimum performance as well as the processing of the metal for such properties as strength, conductivity and formability. The alloys contain the following component ranges: -0-

     0.15 to 0.5 -- weight percent beryllium
     0.4 to 1.25 -- weight percent nickel
     Up to 0.25 -- weight percent tin
     0.06 to 1 weight percent zirconium, titanium, or both
     The balance of the percentage is copper

The alloys are made more affordable by using nickel instead of more expensive cobalt. Alloy 171 is at the low end of the nickel range and Brush 60 is at the high end. "In addition, copper-nickel-beryllium alloys are more forgiving of a high tin level which enables melting of tin-plated scrap without the expense of detinning," Harkness explained. "This is significant for stamping operations generating up to 50 percent process scrap. Furthermore, the alloys are designed for manufacturability to leverage the capabilities of a new strip mill expansion for reduced manufacturing cost."

Alloy 171 is primarily targeted for automotive wiring harness terminals. Brush 60 provides properties that are very attractive for the computer and telecommunications industries.

Brush Wellman Inc., headquartered in Cleveland, is a manufacturer of engineered materials. The company and its subsidiaries supply worldwide markets with Beryllium Products, Alloy Products, Ceramic Products, Precious Metal Products and Engineered Material Systems.