Lifecycle testing of Nitinol rotary actuators

Nitinol rotary actuators provide an attractive replacement for conventional actuators in weight sensitive, volume limited applications, including aerospace.  This paper provides a review of Nitinol rotary actuator lifecycle testing which demonstrates component-level reliability critical for aerospace applications.    Multiple Nitinol (55-Nitinol) rotary actuators in tube form were thermal mechanically cycled under various loads showing excellent long-term stability and performance.  An analysis of the data from 3 rotary actuators with over 130,000 cycles is presented.