Investigations of high load actuators based on Shape Memory Alloys

Actuators based on Shape Memory Alloys (SMA) are suitable for generating actuating movements can be used in machine tool engineering. For the investigations, a suitable Ni-Ti-Cu alloy was available as bar material. At first DSC measurements were performed. Second fatigue investigations under compressive loading with a large number of cycles were carried out on the Ni-Ti-Cu alloy in the martensite and austenite region. Overall, a stabilizing behavior of the SMA samples can be observed over a large number of cycles. Due to the relatively small differences in phase transformation temperatures and the resulted stabilizing behavior, a suitable, homogeneous SMA material is thus available for the construction of high load actuators.