Production of Be-Ti and Be-Zr rods by extrusion and their characterization

•Beryllides envisaged as neutron multiplier for fusion reactor blankets.•Ti and Zr beryllides discussed in the paper.•Extrusion used as intermediate production step.•Transformation into beryllide performed by HIP.•Characterization of specimens by Y-ray diffraction and microscopy. Beryllide pebbles are at present manufactured by the rotating electrode process. An economic process for electrode fabrication is extrusion of encapsulated beryllium and metal powders. The selected extrusion temperate is about 650 °C in order to avoid the generation of brittle intermetallic phases. The resulting rods have a sufficient strength and plasticity in order to be used as electrodes. Rods were produced by blended Be+Zr and Be+Ti powders in double-walled containers. Additionally, subsequent hot isostatic pressing was performed with the Be+Ti specimen in order to generate titanium beryllide. For all specimen, density measurements and a microstructural characterization using X-Ray diffraction and optical microscopy was performed.