| The Significance of Melt Practice on Fatigue Properties of Superelastic NiTi Fine Diameter Wire | ||
| Mr. Mitesh M. Patel1, Mr. David L. Plumley1, Mr. Ray Bouthot1 and Mr. James L. Proft2, 1Fort Wayne Metals Research Products Corporation, 9609 Indianapolis Road, Fort Wayne, IN 46809, 2Metallurgical Solutions, 2 Williams Landing, Redwood City, CA 94404 In continuation of a previous comparison of the influence of melt practice and strain amplitude on Ni 56wt%-Ti 0.267 mm wire, this investigation explores the fatigue properties at 0.127 mm of the same melt lots. By employing the same rotary beam fatigue testing, material with equivalent thermo-mechanical processing to achieve like superelastic properties is compared. With known statistically detectable variations in carbon level and inclusion content, testing again focused on determining if there is a difference in rotary beam fatigue performance. In contrast to the results of the previous study, there is evidence of a difference in performance for the smaller diameter wire among melt sources. Possible explanations for this difference and its significance are discussed. | ||