Fabrication of Nitinol Materials and Components

As Nitinol emerges to find more and more applications in medical devices and industrial commercial markets, understanding on the effects of material processing becomes increasingly important. More so than other materials, properties of Nitinol are significantly affected by its fabrication processes. There are abundant amounts of processing data available in the industry. However, they are often kept proprietary and not released in the public domain. This paper reviews available publications on Nitinol fabrication processes, such as melting, forming, shaping, treating, cutting, joining and finishing, etc., commonly employed or developed for the manufacture of Nitinol material and components. Effects of these operations on the material properties are discussed.