Smart materials bend in several product directions On the campus of Michigan State Univ. While many of the research projects underway are funded by automotive suppliers, spin-off discoveries have an influence on other types of consumer products as well. One area of materials research at the center has to do with applications for metallic thin films such as titanium-nickel alloy, originally developed decades ago by the U.S. Navy and dubbed nitinol. In addition to the more traditional forming techniques, such as ingot metallurgy that are used in making eyeglass frames from titanium-nickel, it can also be boiled off and condensed to form thin films, as Grummon has demonstrated. Solid-mechanics software programs enable Grummon and colleagues to understand how these metallic thin films undergo phase changes.
Manufacturers can make small actuators and pump valves measuring in microns.
Applications for these machines could include biomedical products such as smart surgical instruments that open, close, and perform other smart functions. Computer tools, such as finite-element analysis, are also used. An advanced bonding technology developed at Univ. Through this research, real progress has been made in lowering costs and using practical new materials in defense vehicles, where several inches of steel all around used to be the prevalent design criterion. The technique itself involves co-molding an amorphous thermoplastic bonding interlayer with the semicrystalline sponson.