Materion Beryllium & Composites, Elmore, Ohio, announces that it has delivered the first finished AlBeCast aluminum-beryllium investment cast components to Lockheed Martin for the F-35 Lightning II Electro-Optical Targeting System (EOTS). These alloys are 25% less dense than aluminum and have four times the specific stiffness of aluminum, titanium, steel, and magnesium. They have higher damping capacity than aluminum, and a coefficient of thermal expansion almost 50% lower.
Aluminum-beryllium materials and castings provide favorable cost/benefit advantages for technically demanding applications such as EOTS that require a combination of ultra-low density, high stiffness, mechanical stability, and thermal properties.
The proprietary AlBeCast technology extends Materion’s aluminum-beryllium product offering beyond its powder metallurgy-derived AlBeMet materials by offering rapid prototyping and solidification modeling to provide investment cast parts with short lead times at competitive pricing.
EOTS is a high-performance, lightweight, multi-function system that provides precision air-to-air and air-to-surface targeting capability. As the first sensor to combine forward-looking infrared and infrared search and track functionality, EOTS enhances situational awareness and allows aircrews to identify areas of interest, perform reconnaissance, and precisely deliver laser- and GPS-guided weapons. Lockheed Martin has delivered more than 170 EOTS for the F-35 Lightning II.
