Minim Invasive Ther Allied Technol. 2004 Aug;13(4):254-60. doi: 10.1080/S13645700410018055.
Shape memory alloys based on the intermetallic system Nickel-Titanium (NiTi or NiTinol) are widely used in various kinds of industries. At present, the most popular market is medical industry, in which NiTinol finds a perfect environment with a narrow temperature specification ranging from room to body temperature. In this area we find a multitude of different applications, products and important patents. The awareness of engineers in R&D departments of the existence of NiTinol and the knowledge about the material properties has remarkably increased over the years. However, the penetration of other markets in non-medical industries with shape memory alloys, such as automotive industry, did not show a similar development. For many of those applications the use of NiTinol suffers from the fact that the relevant material properties are strongly related to the environmental temperature while some temperature specifications in such markets are remarkably wide. Thus, the number of commercially exploited applications is smaller than in the medical industry with its tightly defined requirements for the working temperature range. The purpose of this paper is to increase the awareness of R&D engineers for use of NiTinol by explaining the strengths and weaknesses of NiTinol, especially by describing and promoting the less well-known properties and effects of the material. These effects do not depend so much on the environmental temperature. In particular, the deformability of the martensitic phase and the linear superelastic effect will be subject of this paper together with some recent applications in non-medical areas.
基于金属间化合物体系镍钛（NiTi或镍钛诺）的形状记忆合金广泛应用于各类行业。目前，最热门的市场是医疗行业，在该领域镍钛诺找到了一个理想的环境，其温度范围较窄，从室温到体温。在这个领域，我们可以看到大量不同的应用、产品和重要专利。多年来，研发部门的工程师对镍钛诺的存在及其材料特性的认知显著提高。然而，形状记忆合金在非医疗行业的其他市场，如汽车行业的渗透情况却没有类似的发展。对于许多此类应用而言，使用镍钛诺存在一个问题，即相关材料特性与环境温度密切相关，而这些市场中的一些温度范围相当宽。因此，商业开发的应用数量比医疗行业少，医疗行业对工作温度范围有严格的定义要求。本文的目的是通过解释镍钛诺的优缺点，特别是通过描述和推广该材料不太为人所知的特性和效应，来提高研发工程师对镍钛诺应用的认识。这些效应在很大程度上不依赖于环境温度。特别是，马氏体相的可变形性和线性超弹性效应将是本文的主题，同时还会介绍一些在非医疗领域的最新应用。
