Application of Thermomechanically Treated Ti-Ni SMA

Abstract

The main fields of the practical application of Ti-Ni-based alloys, with shape memory and superelasticity effects, in engineering and medicine, have been identified in the past decade. There are temperature-sensitive elements for the actuators, damping devices, fasteners, medical instruments and implants (correctors, clamps, stents), for trauma, spine, dentistry, soft tissues and vessels. The development of science and high technologies to produce semi-finished methods (thin-walled tubes, tapes and thin wire), as well as processing methods (laser cutting and welding) of Ti-Ni-based shape memory alloys (SMA) over the last 10 years has contributed to the creation and implementation into practice of more complicated and advanced devices, based on solid and porous shape memory materials. New technologies require not only the creation of fundamentally new shape-memory devices, but also, more importantly, the achievement of the highest possible functional properties (FP) of the SMA, by creating an optimal type of structure by thermomechanical treatment. Techniques for the regulation of FP are different for Ti-Ni SMA of different compositions. For the non-ageing equiatomic and near-equiatomic Ti-Ni SMA, the basic method of FP control is thermomechanical treatment (ТМT), including severe plastic deformation (SPD), forming various structures: from a well-developed recovered and polygonized dislocation substructure to a nanocrystalline structure. In the framework of the scientific direction, fundamental and applied research in the field of SMA thermomechanical treatment (TMT) has been carried out since 1977, by the Shape Memory Alloys Research Group of the National University of Science and Technology MISIS.The present review provides a brief description of the devices running on the shape-memory effect and superelasticity, developed jointly by NUST MISIS and various companies: Globetek 2000 Ltd (Melbourne, Australia); Semashko Central Clinical Hospital of Ministry of Railway Communications; Closed Joint-Stock Company ARMGAS-NT; Scientific-production Enterprise AVTOMATPROM (Moscow, Russia), et al. In addition, it presents the analysis of medical problems that can be solved using data devices, including work items of thermomechanically treated Ti-Ni SMA.