The study of the characteristics of constant-force elements using NiTi SMAs

Issue title: Proceedings from the 17th International Symposium on Applied Electromagnetics and Mechanics (ISEM 2015)

Guest editors: Fumio Kojima, Futoshi Kobayashi and Hiroyuki Nakamoto

Article type: Research Article

Authors: Zhou, Ying | Wang, Minghui | Zhu, Liangfan | Luo, Yun^*

Affiliations: School of Mechanical Engineering, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai, China

Correspondence: [*] Corresponding author: Yun Luo, School of Mechanical Engineering, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, 800 DongChuan Rd., Shanghai 200240, China. E-mail:luoyun@sjtu.edu.cn

Abstract: Constant-force behavior is an unique property of superelastic NiTi shape memory alloy (SMA) and could be used in designing constant-force elements in surgical devices. It is easily obtained by stretching an SMA wire. However, studies with SMA bending strips have seldom been reported before. According to the constant-force design principles of the bending strips obtained through simulations in previous paper, several prototypes were developed for experimental evaluation. This paper presents a proof of concept on the principles through experiments. The results show its availability as constant-force element for practical use.

Keywords: Constant-force, NiTi shape memory alloys, bending strips

DOI: 10.3233/JAE-162131

Journal: International Journal of Applied Electromagnetics and Mechanics, vol. 52, no. 3-4, pp. 1469-1475, 2016