Abstract: Nickel/titanium alloys containing less than a stoichiometric quantity of titanium, which have a high austenitic yield strength and are capable of developing the property of shape memory at a temperature above 0.degree. C., may be stabilized by the addition of from 7.5 to 14 atomic percent copper. These stabilized alloys also possess improved workability and machinability.

Abstract: A shaped part made of a composite material having shape memory properties is intended to be assembled in such a way that various changes in shape, including complex changes, take place in dependence on the temperature. This is achieved by providing that the shaped part has several sections which have shape memory properties and which are coupled together with one another in such a way that independent results of the shape memory effect cause temperature-specific changes in the shape of the shaped part, in the course of which the shaped part assumes the same number of permanent and/or reversible shapes as the number of sections having shape memory properties.

Abstract: Method of processing nickel-titanium-base shape-memory alloys to substantially suppress the two-way effect including the steps of cold working and low-temperature annealing without restraint. A composite structure is also provided including a nickel-titanium-base shape-memory alloy with the two-way effect substantially suppressed.

Abstract: A thermally actuated device comprising a shape memory alloy which has an improved temperature response. The shape memory alloy is combined with a bias load to provide a two-way action and the temperature-deflection relationship at an operating temperature range is such that the shear strain of the shape memory alloy corresponding to the point of transit from a first shape recovery process to a second shape recovery process resulting from the heating is smaller than that corresponding to the point of termination of a first strain induced process by the counteracting bias load resulting from the cooling. The difference between said two sheer strains is restricted to the range of operating strain of the shape memory alloy.

Abstract: Material, in the form of bars, tubes, profiles, wires, sheets, or bands, which is, at least partially, composed of a constituent showing a one-way shape memory effect, and a further inactive constituent hindering the one-way effect of the first, and which collectively exhibits a significant two-way effect. The one-way shape memory constituent can be a Cu-Al-Ni, Cu-Al, TiV, Ti-Nb, Ni-Ti, or Ni-Ti-Cu alloy. Production of bi- or multi-constituent components by brazing, welding, roll bonding, extruding, powder metallurgical methods, hot isostatic pressing, or gluing, or by the application of metallic coatings (2) onto a core material (1) and subsequent diffusion treatment to produce an inactive surface layer (3).

Abstract: Nickel/titanium alloys having a nickel:titanium atomic ratio between about 1:02 and 1:13 and a vanadium content between about 4.6 and 25.0 atomic percent show constant stress versus strain behavior due to stress-induced martensite in the range from about 0.degree. to 60.degree. C.

Abstract: Disclosed is a method for processing beta-phase nickel/titanium-base alloys. According to the method, the alloys are warm worked and then warm annealed. The working and annealing temperatures are in the range of about 350.degree. to 600.degree. C. Also disclosed is an article produced by the method.

Abstract: A method of treating an integral piece of thermosensitive material which undergoes thermoelastic, martensitic phase transformation in response to heat to pass from a martensitic phase when at a temperature below a phase transformation temperature range and capable of a first high level of recoverable strain to a parent austenitic phase and memory shape when at a temperature above the phase transformation temperature range and capable of a second lower level of recoverable strain. The method is characterized by first cold working the material to a cold worked state comprising a disordered combination of martensitic and austenitic structures and then memory annealing a first portion of the integral piece of material to establish the martensitic and austenitic phases and the memory shape in the austenitic phase while retaining a second portion of the integral piece of material in the cold worked state and incapable of shape memory response.

Abstract: A copper-base shape-memory alloy having high resistance to fatigue failure as well as high ductility and, in particular, high deformability in the martensite phase is disclosed. The alloy consists essentially of 10-45% Zn, 1-10% Al, 0.05-2% Ti, 0.05-2% of one of Fe and Ni, the balance being Cu and incidental impurities, the percent being by weight.

Abstract: The disclosure relates to a method of insuring the tightness of a fastener including forming a three-dimensional annular member in an austenite phase using a press, cooling the annular member to a temperature lower than the temperature for starting an austenite transformation, fastening the fastener with the annular member to flatten the annular member, and returning the temperature of the annular member to a higher than austenite temperature so that the recovery power of the annular member for returning the annular member to the three-dimensional shape in the austenite phase generates a fastening force for the fastener.

Abstract: An aluminum bearing beta copper alloy that on heating to a first temperature shows a transition from an (alpha+beta)-region, an (alpha+beta+gamma)-region or a (beta+gamma)-region to a beta-region.Its average grain size is less than 200 .mu.m and it contains aluminium bearing precipitates, e.g. Co-Al-precipitates, the average size of which is less than 10 .mu.m and which are insoluble in the alloy below a second temperature that is higher than said first temperature.The fine grain structure guarantees an excellent mechanical and thermomechanical behavior of the alloy, while the aluminium bearing precipitates guarantee that this structure and hence the advantageous behavior of the alloy is maintained as long as the alloy is not heated to said second temperature.

Abstract: A two-way shape memory alloy, a method of training a shape memory alloy, and a heat engine employing the two-way shape memory alloy to do external work during both heating and cooling phases. The alloy is heated under a first training stress to a temperature which is above the upper operating temperature of the alloy, then cooled to a cold temperature below the zero-force transition temperature of the alloy, then deformed while applying a second training stress which is greater in magnitude than the stress at which the alloy is to be operated, then heated back to the hot temperature, changing from the second training stress back to the first training stress.

Abstract: A damping device for use with acoustic information generation machines for isolating a generation portion of the generation device from contamination by extraneous acoustic emissions. A metal isolation piece consisting of a shape-memory alloy is disposed between an extraneous noise source and the generation portion of the device. Acoustic information generation devices in accordance with the present invention include phonograph record playing devices and testing devices for recording acoustic signals generated upon stressing a test piece. Thus, the present invention provides improved phonograph record playing devices and an improved testing device.

Abstract: In a geothermal production well, oil well or gas well, a thermally energized packer cup having a tapered elastomer body and a reinforcing element fabricated from a shape memory alloy seals the well casing when the packer cup is heated to the transformation temperature of the shape memory alloy.

Abstract: Process to produce a reversible two-way shape memory effect in Cu-Al-Ni and Cu-Al memory alloys by heat treating said alloy while applying an external lead (G) after the martensite formation accomplished by the conventional steps: solution treatment, quench (1,2) and deformation (3). Additional improvements by optional Martensite Stabilization (10) and Two-way Effect Zero-point Stabilization (12) in the form of further heat treatments.

Abstract: A process for manufacturing a component from a mechanically unstable .beta.-titanium alloy which exhibits 3 shape-related memory effects which all differ from one another: a one-way effect, a two-way effect (resembling a bi-metal), this effect being virtually hysteresis-free but occurring continuously over a wide phase-transformation temperature range, and an irreversible effect, which is isothermal. Utilization of the effects in thermal triggering elements (electrical switches) as well as in fixed or detachable connecting elements for components.

Abstract: A noticeable two-way effect can be induced in a component consisting of a shape memory alloy exhibiting only a one-way effect by inhomogeneous deformation of the cross-section so that one part of the component cross-section is deformed sufficiently to hinder the free movement of the one-way effect in the lesser deformed part. Component in the form of a tension/compression (6/8), bending (3), or torsion rod.

Abstract: A shape memory alloy consisting essentially of, by weight ratio, 2 to 15% aluminium, 0.01 to 3% beryllium and the balance being substantially copper, with impurities being inevitably present in the process of preparation, and a shape memory alloy further including 0.05 to 15% zinc, both including composition ranges which allows cold work.

Abstract: A notable two-way effect can be induced in components made of a memory alloy exhibiting only a one-way effect by applying an external force which gives rise to an internal stress opposing the one-way effect. Component made of a memory alloy in the form of a tension, compression bending, or torsion rod (helical spring 2). External force by weight or spring (counter-spring 3).

Abstract: A fine-grained shape-memory alloy of the Cu/Zn/Al type, prepared by powder metallurgy, exhibiting the beta-high temperature phase, having dispersed in the matrix dispersoids in the form of Y.sub.2 O.sub.3 and or TiO.sub.2 particles which limit grain growth, and a process for preparing this alloy using mechanical alloying.

Abstract: Cu/Al and Cu/Al/Ni memory alloys having improved mechanical properties are prepared by powder metallurgy from mixtures of pre-alloyed and/or pre-mixed powder ingredients. The mixture of powder ingredients is subjected successively to isostatic pressing, sintering in an inert atmospheric and subsequent multi-step hot working with intermediate annealing which serves to homogenize. Final annealing is carried out in the .beta.-phase solid solution temperature range and the annealed article is quenched in water.

Abstract: Nickel/titanium alloys containing less than a stoichiometric quantity of titanium, which are capable of having the property of heat recoverability imparted thereto at a temperature above the boiling point of liquid nitrogen, may be stabilized by the addition of from 1.5 to 9 atomic percent copper. These stabilized alloys also possess improved workability and machinability.