Nitinol (nickel-titanium or Ni-Ti) is the most utilized shape memory alloy due to its good superelasticity, shape memory effect, low stiffness, damping, biocompatibility, and corrosion resistance. Various material characteristics, such as sensitivity to composition and production thermal gradients, make conventional methods ineffective for the manufacture of high quality complex Nitinol components. These issues can be resolved by modern additive manufacturing (AM) methods which can produce net or near-net shape parts with highly precise and complex Nitinol structures. Compared to Laser Engineered Net Shape (LENS), Selective Laser Melting (SLM) has the benefit of more easily creating a high quality local inert atmosphere which protects chemically-reactive Nitinol powders to a higher degree. In this paper, the most recent publications related to the SLM processing of Nitinol are reviewed to identify the various influential factors involved and process-related issues. It is reported how powder quality and material composition have a significant effect on the produced microstructures and phase transformations. The effect of heat treatments after SLM fabrication on the functional and mechanical properties are noted. Optimization of several operating parameters were found to be critical in fabricating Nitinol parts of high density. The importance of processing parameters and related thermal cooling gradient which are crucial for obtaining the correct phase structure for shape memory capabilities are also presented. The paper concludes by presenting the significant findings and areas of prospective future research in relation to the SLM processing of Nitinol.

Extrusion is a very popular and multi-faceted manufacturing process. A large number of products for the automotive, aerospace, and construction sectors are produced through aluminum extrusion. Many defects in the extruded products occur because of the conditions of the dies and tooling. The problems in dies can be due to material issues, design and manufacturing, or severe usage. They can be avoided by maintaining the billet quality, by controlling the extrusion process parameters, and through routine maintenance. Die problems that occur on a day-to-day basis are mostly repairable and are rectified through various types of die correction operations. These defects and repair operations have not been reported in detail in the published literature. The current paper presents an in-depth description of repairable die defects and related die correction operations in metal extrusion. All major die defects are defined and classified, and their causes, preventive measures, and die correction operations are described. A brief frequency-based statistical study of die defects is also carried out to identify the most frequent die corrections. This work can be of direct benefit to plant engineers and operators and to researchers and academics in the field of metal extrusion.

Nitinol (NiTi) alloys are gaining extensive attention due to their excellent mechanical, superelasticity, and biocompatibility properties. It is difficult to model the complex mechanical behavior of NiTi alloys due to the solid-state diffusionless phase transformations, and the differing elasticity and plasticity presenting from these two phases. In this work, an Auricchio finite element (FE) model was used to model the mechanical behavior of superelastic NiTi and was validated with experimental data from literature. A Representative Volume Element (RVE) was used to simulate the NiTi microstructure, and a microscale study was performed to understand how the evolution of martensite phase from austenite affects the response of the material upon loading. Laser Powder Bed Fusion (L-PBF) is an effective way to build complex NiTi components. Porosity being one of the major defects in Laser Powder Bed Fusion (L-PBF) processes, the model was used to correlate the macroscale effect of porosity (1.4–83.4%) with structural stiffness, dissipated energy during phase transformations, and damping properties. The results collectively summarize the effectiveness of the Auricchio model and show that this model can aid engineers to plan NiTi processing and operational parameters, for example for heat pump, medical implant, actuator, and shock absorption applications.