Starmet Corporation went out of business in 2007. Its former site is now an EPA superfund site. Starmet Corporation manufactures a variety of specialty metal products using sophisticated metallurgical technology and metalworking processes. Early work was in the metallurgical laboratory of M.I.T, later picked up by Arthur D Little with the name Nuclear Metals. In 1971, NMI became an independent company, acquired by two former employees. Since Jan 2001, fim has traded on OTC. Starmet Corporation has developed a new family of beryllium-aluminum alloys that overcomes the limitations of pure beryllium and existing beryllium-aluminum alloys, while retaining the benefits of the two metals. The new alloys, called Beralcast®, combine berylliums light weight and high stiffness with aluminums excellent processing characteristics and low cost. Beralcast mixes germanium, silver, cobalt, and sodium with the beryllium and aluminum to form an alloy that can be cast using a process similar to conventional investment casting. Earlier alloys, which were available only in powder form, had to be processed in rolling, extrusion, and powder metallurgy technologies that limited their geometrical shapes. The new alloys can be cast into complex shapes that need little or no machining. Several spinoff companies have formed to develop alloy-based products, such as bicycle frames, satellite structures, computer disk drive armatures, and helicopter sensor system components.
