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AssigneesThe Regents of the University of Michigan, Board of Trustees of Michigan State University
InventorsJohn A. Shaw, David S. Grummon
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This invention discloses a method, using pure niobium as a transient liquid reactive braze material, for fabrication of cellular or honeycomb structures, wire space-frames or other sparse builtup structures or discrete articles using Nitinol (near equiatomic titanium-nickel alloy) and related shape-memory and superelastic alloys. Nitinol shape memory alloys (SMAs), acquired in a form such as corrugated sheet, discrete tubes or wires, may be joined together using the newly discovered technique. Pure niobium when brought into contact with Nitinol at elevated temperature, liquefies at temperatures below the melting point and flows readily into capillary spaces between the elements to be joined, thus forming a strong joint. A series of diagrams of the interface at various stages of brazing is illustrated by FIG. 10.
A transient-liquid reactive method of adhering a plurality of shape memory alloy elements together comprising disposing a plurality of said shape memory alloy elements adjacent to each other, and contacting at least one of the elements with a reactive brazing metal at a reaction temperature sufficient to cause a shape memory alloy element/brazing metal reaction, thereby forming a liquid that is an alloy of the shape memory alloy element and the brazing metal, wherein the reaction temperature is insufficient to liquefy either the shape memory alloy element or the brazing metal in the absence of the reaction.
A method of adhering a plurality of shape memory alloy elements together with a sufficient amount of a brazing metal and without significant damage to the shape memory alloy element surfaces caused by an excess of the brazing metal comprising:
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.