Method of alloying reactive components

A method of making a hyperelastic single-crystal CuAlNi shape memory alloy, the method comprising:

• forming a melt of CuAlNi by:
• layering a plurality of layers of aluminum with one or more layers of copper and one or more layers of nickel, in an alternating pattern so that each layer of copper and each layer of nickel is sandwiched between two layers of aluminum;
• reacting the layers;
• and
• melting the reacted layers, wherein the plurality of aluminum layers begin to melt prior to the melting of the one or more layers of copper and nickel;
• placing a seed of a desired composition for the shape memory alloy into the melt;
• drawing the seed from the melt at a controlled rate so that a solid crystal is formed at a crystallization front;
• heating the drawn crystal at a beta phase temperature of 850-1000° C.;
• and
• rapidly quenching the drawn crystal from the beta phase temperature to produce a single crystal beta phase shape memory alloy.