Materion Corporation (NYSE: MTRN) announced that it has been recognized by the European Organization for Nuclear Research, known as CERN, for “outstanding contributions to the construction” of the Compact Muon Solenoid (CMS) Collaboration Experiment, one of four experiment stations built on the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN near Geneva astride the Franco-Swiss border. The LHC is the world’s largest and most powerful particle accelerator.

Materion received the CMS Crystal Industry Award, the organization’s highest honor for industry suppliers. CERN recognized Materion’s “excellent work done for the fabrication and delivery to CERN of the new central beam pipe, an essential component of the CMS detector upgrade.”

The central beam pipe provides the vacuum chamber within which two beams of sub-atomic particles are steered into head-on collisions. The CMS Collaboration Experiment investigates a wide range of physics, including the search for the Higgs boson, extra dimensions, and particles that could make up dark matter.

Materion has supplied all of the beryllium beam pipes currently installed at the LHC and all but one installed since inception. Beryllium is the material of choice for beam pipe vacuum chambers due to a unique combination of physical properties. All of the beam pipes supplied by the Company were designed and produced at Materion’s Electrofusion facility in Fremont, California. The new CMS beam pipe was delivered to CERN in January 2014. With an overall length of 246 inches (6.24 meters), the beryllium sections have incredibly demanding tolerances and very thin walls for a chamber of that length.

“We are proud to receive this honor from CERN, and we are proud of our role in the high energy physics experiments conducted at CERN,” said Edward Hefter, Vice President and General Manager, Materion Electrofusion. “We look forward to continued collaboration with the Large Hadron Collider as well as other scientific particle accelerators and nuclear test reactors around the world.”

About the CMS Industry Awards

Starting in 2000, the CMS Collaboration has honored industrial companies that have made outstanding contributions to the CMS Experiment with the CMS Gold and Crystal awards. The Gold Awards are granted to companies that have demonstrated their excellence and engagement and provided parts or service within specifications. Companies that in addition have made special efforts, taken initiative to work out better products, explored novel technologies, and/or collaborated in R&D programs with CMS are candidates for the CMS Crystal Award. Since the awards began, just 22 companies have received the Crystal Award. The 2014 Industry Awards were presented at a ceremony in Geneva, Switzerland, on October 13.

Materion Corporation is headquartered in Mayfield Heights, Ohio. The Company, through its wholly owned subsidiaries, supplies highly engineered advanced enabling materials to global markets. Products include precious and non-precious specialty metals, inorganic chemicals and powders, specialty coatings, specialty engineered beryllium alloys, beryllium and beryllium composites, and engineered clad and plated metal systems.