Large scale Shape Memory Alloy actuators and their passive activation

The importance of climate change for society has increased drastically over the past decades. With rising temperatures, the development of intelligent and energy-efficient building structures, of which the integration of innovative shading systems is a key aspect, becomes more and more important. This significantly improves the energy consumption of buildings and sustainably increases the thermal comfort of areas located in regions with high temperatures.

Ingpuls Smart Shadings specializes in developing a variety of shading systems whose drive unit is based on shape memory alloy (SMA) actuators. While most SMA actuator systems work in a range of motion of only a few millimeters, we build systems which have displacements of several meters.

In this scale, SMA actuators are ideal for integration into shading architectures. However, the challenges that are typical for SMA actuators, such as functional fatigue and accumulation of residual strain, also scale with the length of the actuator. This requires a precise dimensioning of the large-scale actuator regarding the alloy composition and the processing parameters. For the activation, we present two methods, which we call “active” by electric heating, and “passive”, where we use sunlight to heat the SMA component. In our presentation, we discuss and highlight the benefits and challenges of each method.