The Materials and Processes for Medical Devices (MPMD) Conference and Exposition (August 8-10, 2011) of ASM

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Tuesday, August 9, 2011 - 4:00 PM

Nanoindentation of MP35N Wire and Its Welding

T. Steigauf, B. Li, D. Yang, Medtronic, Mounts View, MN

MP35N wire has been used as a lead conductor material in medical devices for many years.  The mechanical properties of the wire have usually been obtained through tensile testing due to small wire sizes.  The mechanical properties of welded wires was also determined by tensile testing.  Tensile testing however was not able to test the real properties of welds since the welds generally had significantly larger cross-sectional areas than the wire.  The actual properties and property gradients of welded wire was not able to be measured by conventional test techniques.  Nanoindentation allows us to measure properties and gradients in the weld area, along with single wire properties in MP35N cable.  This paper presents nanoindentation testing on; a standard MP35N cable, a low Ti MP35N cable, and their welds. Hardness and reduced modulus were determined to compare the differences between standard MP35N and low Ti MP35N cables.