Advances in Metallic Materials for Medical Devices

There are many reasons a designer may choose to utilize a shape memory material in a medical device.  The capabilities are well-known and interrelated, a partial list including: high strain recovery, high specific actuation work output, low and sustained spring force, and good low-strain high-cycle fatigue performance.  In an astounding number of cases, properly-engineered binary Nitinol can be designed to meet or exceed requirements.  In other cases, sometimes due to misconceptions, sometimes due to real limitations, plain Nitinol may not satisfy the design.  In this talk, we will discuss advances in materials science and engineering that are being made to address quandaries in device design with shape memory materials.  Specific topics will include a look at thermomechanical treatments and research in binary polycrystalline Nitinol to push towards the theoretical transformation strain limit, promising techniques to produce more-radiopaque shape memory materials, fatigue-enhanced NiTi, and developments in alternative shape memory alloys systems such as nickel-free beta titanium and ferrous systems.