With applications in multiple industries including medical, sustainable energy, and aerospace, nitinol is one of the most commonly used shape-memory alloys. To take full advantage of nitinol’s shape-memory characteristics, corrosion resistance, and super-elasticity, manufacturers must understand how to join this unique material without detrimentally affecting the properties that make it so attractive.
EWI developed a welding process to join nitinol to stainless steel over a decade ago and was recently asked to support a research partner’s program focused on developing mechanical actuators for aircraft wing and rudder control surfaces. A new paper, State-of-the-art Joining Methods for Nitinol Shape-memory Alloy, discusses multiple options for joining of nitinol components, as well as the use of EWI’s patented process for the manufacturing of mechanical actuator demonstrator components. To read the full article, click here.
EWI Senior Engineer Tim Frech can be contacted at [email protected].