Introduction

Over the past 15 years, we have developed a unique expertise in the manufacture and application of Nitinol  foams. The foams are net-shape, use inexpensive feed-stock material, thus keeping the part cost lower than other foam manufacturing techniques.  

We have focused on using porous TiNi  for three  applications:

• Actuation: High Power-Density Shape Memory Effect Actuators.
•  Single and Multiwire Nitinol Connectors: Net-shape Nitinol foam terminations for Nitinol wire and helices, allowing easy connections to a structure.
  
• Shock Mitigation:  Multi-hit, rapidly resetting shock mitigation foam for blast and high amplitude shock protection.

 
Other proprietary  applications are being developed in conjunction with our industrial partners.

 Self Propagating High Temperature Synthesis (SHS)  is used to make  some of the foams.  Powders are packed into molds and then reacted at one spot  by applying high heat  to start a very exothermic chemical reaction. The heat of reaction  diffuses and causes the surrounding powderl to react, which in turn  initiates the reaction the surrounding volume, thereby transforming a powder compact into an open-celled foam.   This process is seen in the video below, which initially consists of metal powders and ends up as a 6" diameter foam plate in 20s.

Careful mold design and process control allows for reliable net-shape parts that have good fidelity to the mold geometry.

This video shows the SHS reaction on a 6" diameter powder compact. The application of heat starts the reaction, which the consumes surrounding powder until all the powder is converted to a metal foam.