1. NITINOL

3. Figure 7. Symphony stent, nitinol wire welded to form a
closed-cell structure.

4. Figure 8. WallStent, braided stent fabricated from cobalt alloy wire

5. Figure 19. AVE S7 stent: balloon expandable open-cell
sequential ring design with periodic peak-to-peak non-flex
connections.

6. Figure 17. NIR stent: a closed-cell structure featuring ‘V’
flex-hinges.

7. Figure 18. SMART stent: self-expanding open-cell
sequential ring design with periodic peak-to-peak non-flex
connections.

8. Figure 21. BeStent: balloon expandable open-cell
sequential ring design, with midstrut-to-midstrut
connections and integral gold markers.

9. Figure 6 Deployment of the TrapEase􀂥 vena cava filter (Cordis).

10. The Superelasticity of NiTinol appears to be much more physiologic compared to e.g. stainless steel.

11. Medical Applications

13. Fort Wayne Metals Nitinol Wire Applications
Our Nitinol wire is used for many different medical and industrial applications. The table below gives some typical engineering applications for each of our standard Nitinol medical grades:
GradeApplication
NiTi#1Guidewires, stents, stylets, forming mandrels, stone retrieval baskets, orthodontic files, etc.
NiTi#2Ideal for applications that require a high loading and unloading plateau stresses at room temperature, cell phone antennae, eyeglass frames.
NiTi#4Provides the best cycling performances at 37°C at body temperature.

14. Actual Applied Nitinol

15. Nitinol uses
Hall-Garcia  Cardiology Associates

16. Hall-Garcia Cardiology Associates
Nitinol
Hall-Garcia  Cardiology Associates

17. Nitinol filters

18. Elastic Springback and Constancy of Stress
Nitinol’s springback or elasticity is about 10 times greater than stainless steel.
Nitinol can be designed to apply constant force or stress over a variety of shapes. A good example of this is orthodontic archwires.

19. Biocompatibility
Nitinol is compatible with the human body even though nickel is toxic. Nitinol is an intermetallic compound in metallurgical sense and the bonding force of nickel and titanium is much stronger than stainless steel.
When nitinol oxidizes, which is not easy for it to do, due to the protective coatings, it forms TiO2 on the outside with no nickel on the surface. This makes it safe for contact with the human body.
Nitinol is also more stable and less corrosive that stainless steel.
Flexibility and kink resistance allows the alloy to be bent and deformed far beyond the abilities of stainless steel. Today small nitinol tubes and wires travel all throughout the body.
Nitinol is also MRI compatible because it is non-ferromagnetic with a lower susceptibility than stainless steel.

20. Elastic and Thermal Deployment
Superelastic nitinol medical instruments can be deployed with the shape memory technique which works well with human bodies. After cooling the nitinol to its martensite phase it can deployed once the Af Temperature is reached, and the Af Temperature is set to about 98 degrees F.
Stents are inserted to keep vessels open in the body, and they will grow larger as the vessel grows because of their flex ability and elasticity.
Elastic deployment allows complex instruments to pass through small tubes (cannulas) and into the human body, where they deploy and return to their programmed undeformed shape.