T. C. U. Matheus, W. M. M. Menezes, O. D. Rigo, H. O. Magalhães, L. K. Kabayama, J. Otubo, Instituto Tecnologico de Aeronautica, S. J. dos Campos, Brazil; C. S. C. Viana, Instituto Militar de Engenharia, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
NiTi SMA presents applications in several areas such as aerospace, robotics, biomedical, etc. Biomedical applications include stents, orthopedics implants, arc wires and endodontics files for teeth root canal preparation. For the last application the major concern is the occurrence of unexpected failure during rotary operation. Aiming a future application as a raw material to produce endodontics files, NiTi wires produced at Institute will be tested using rotary bending fatigue test varying parameters such as wire diameter, wire curvature radius, rotational speed etc. A brief analysis related to wire fabrication will also be presented.
Summary: Superelastic NiTi SMA for endodontic files for teeth root canal preparation requires some mechanical properties such as resistance to rotary bending fatigue that by its turn depends upon the raw material, NiTi wire. Therefore the right knowledge of the starting material and its influence on the future performance as a final product is an important and necessary pre-requisite.
