Nitinol

Abstract

Nitinol is the most prominent and most utilized of a class of seemingly magical materials called Shape Memory Alloys that can ``remember'' a shape from a different temperature or at a different stress. The shape memory effect was discovered by a Swedish Chemist Arne Ölander (1902--1984) in gold-cadmium alloys in 1932. The effect was later observed in a beta brass (Cu-Zn) alloy in the 1950s and in Nitinol in 1959. The name Nitinol arises because the shape memory effect was discovered in a nickel titanium alloy by William J. Buehler and Frederick Wang at the Naval Ordnance Laboratory. Hence, the name Nickel Titanium Naval Ordnance Laboratory.