Superelastic Nitinol has become a material of strategic importance because it can overcome a wide range of technical and design issues associated with the growing trends in miniaturization of medical devices and minimally invasive and traumatic surgeries. Superelastic nickel-titanium tubes are widely used in this field.
Nitinol tubes are typically manufactured in outer diameters from 0.10 mm to about 10 mm, in discrete lengths up to 3 meters, and are supplied in direct cold worked and heat-treated states.
The most important and relevant properties of superelastic nickel-titanium alloys are as follows:
-Advantages associated with superelastic behavior:
-Large recoverable deformation
-Low permanent or residual deformation
-High plateau stress and ultimate tensile strength
-Body temperature is in the superelastic temperature range (50 at% Ni – Ti)
-High potential energy storage capacity
-Corrosion resistance is similar to stainless steel and titanium alloys
-Biocompatibility
The vast majority of Superelastic Niti Tube produced today is made from a very typical 50 at% Ni alloy composition. The alloy exhibits good superelastic properties at and near body temperature, making it ideal for a variety of medical device applications. Warmer binary compositions (50.6 at% Ni) have also been successfully introduced into small-format hypotubes when thermal shape memory effects are required.
Nitinol tubes typically range in outer diameter from 0.15 mm to about 7 mm, but larger sizes (up to 15 mm) are also available on a more limited custom basis.
Nitinol tube is always available in discrete lengths (up to 3.5 meters) and in cold worked and heat-treated condition.
Superelastic Niti Tube is typically drawn in a seamless state starting from gun-drilled rod stock (often called hollow). Using typical tube drawing techniques:
-Floating plug
-Hard mandrel
-Submersible (no internal mandrel or stopper drawing)
Making superelastic niti tubes remains a challenging and costly endeavor, but progress is happening rapidly, and smaller gauges and thin-walled tubes are now available, in part due to strong demand from the medical device community.
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