Nitinol is a metal that remembers a shape. Warm it and it pulls itself back to that shape, hard enough to do work, with no motor, no gearbox, no solenoid and no hydraulics. The metal is the whole mechanism.

This handbook exists so you can choose one the same way you would choose a bearing or a screw. Look up the job, read off the part. Every form we make has a chapter, every chapter has tables, and every table gives force, movement and fatigue life at four design levels, in inch-pound units with the metric figure alongside.

555 pages. No sign-up, no email required.

What is inside

Fourteen chapters covering round wire, rod and bar, flat wire, helical spring actuators, face wound and edge wound spring actuators, torsion springs, flat springs, Belleville actuators, separation actuators, torque tubes, tubes in tension, curl actuators, and plates and sheets. Sizing method, fatigue life, how to bring an actuator back, how to overdrive one safely, and what to watch for in each form.

Tell us what you need it to do

Nothing here is the whole story of what nitinol can do, and the parts people call about most are the ones that are not in a table. Tell us what you need it to do and we will tell you whether the metal can do it: nitinol@KelloggsResearchLabs.com or 1-855-583-5353.