Flexinol Blog Posts

All blog posts below are about Dynalloy's Flexinol wire. Click on the image to see the whole post.

Advanced Low Profile SMA Actuator

Advanced Low Profile SMA Actuator

-Our custom MOSFET/Protection Circuit is on each PCB-Actuator-Typical 3-wire interface: Power, Ground, and Enable. When you raise the Enable line logic level HIGH, we energize until you lower the Enable. The actuator moves to the end of stroke, and 'holds' there...

Intel Chromat Adrenaline Dress powered by Flexinol

Intel Chromat Adrenaline Dress powered by Flexinol

We designed the complex Nitinol actuating mechanism behind this dress that was worn on the runway at NY Fashion Week 2015 and at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) 2016. The Chromat Adrenaline Dress powered by Intel is composed of printed panels designed in an...

Hydramax Exhibit using 60 Nitinol Actuators

Hydramax Exhibit using 60 Nitinol Actuators

Hydramax was an architectural model created by Future Cities Lab and installed in the San Francisco MOMA for 6 months.  The model was designed to respond to museum goers with soft illumination and gentle organic operation of the roof panels.  The silent organic...

Laptop lid Nitinol actuator latch

Laptop lid Nitinol actuator latch

Originally developed for a European laptop manufacturer.  The SMA actuator electronically releases the tablet from keyboard/CPU, so you can have a stand alone tablet/touchscreen.  SMA is able to provide high-force motion even in the extremely tight spaces within a...

Nitinol Properties

Nitinol Properties

Transformation Temperature -200 to 110 deg. CLatent Heat of Transformation 5.78 cal/g Transformation Strainfor a single cycle 8%for 100,000 cycles 4%Hysteresis 30 to 50 deg. C Melting Point 1300 deg. C (2370 deg. F)Density 6.45 g/cu.cm (0.233 lb/cu.in)Thermal...

Bluetooth controlled security latch for a Medical Cart

Bluetooth controlled security latch for a Medical Cart

This latch was designed for use for applications where security is needed in very tight spaces like a medical cart.  This actuator provides motion along the short axis of the PC board.  It's shown operating with a 3.7 Volt Lithium-Ion cell.Our Offices Fishers, IN, USA...

Shape Memory Alloy Actuator Bounce Rotating Control

Shape Memory Alloy Actuator Bounce Rotating Control

This is a rotary Nitinol actuator bouncing between end limits. This actuator was designed to move the eyelids in a volume ready toy doll - Baby Bright Eyes. We called her Baby Fright Eyes, because it was so scary to look into her eyeballs, thus the failure of the...

Latch Release Actuator

Latch Release Actuator

Latch Release with 1.5 pounds of force using shape memory alloy wire. This was used as a payload release mechanism for a large military drone. This is a payload release on a life-cycle test fixture. Cycling against a 2-pound spring, powered by a 9V Duracell Lithium...

Tiny Snap Action Flexure Nitinol Actuator

Tiny Snap Action Flexure Nitinol Actuator

This is a simple actuator using 0.008" HT Flexinol to develop a bending mode operation. It is designed to operate at 2.5 Volts.Our Offices Fishers, IN, USA Silverton, OR, USAContact Us Click here for our web form, we'll get right back to you.Office Hours Mon-Sat: 8am...

Pulley Valve Nitinol Actuator

Pulley Valve Nitinol Actuator

This is a high force linear actuator with a single SMA wire wound around pulleys to provide high force.Our Offices Fishers, IN, USA Silverton, OR, USAContact Us Click here for our web form, we'll get right back to you.Office Hours Mon-Sat: 8am - 5pmSun: ClosedFollow...

Nitinol Pneumatic Cylinder Replacement

Nitinol Pneumatic Cylinder Replacement

This long stroke, high speed, prototype SMA actuator was designed for Sony to remove DVD's that did not pass quality control from an assembly line. Mineral oil is used in the body of this actuator to enhance cooling of the Nitinol. This actuator features 8" of 0.010"...

Credit Card Scale High Force Nitinol Actuator

Credit Card Scale High Force Nitinol Actuator

We have found that printed circuit boards (PCB) are great substrates on which to build Nitinol actuators. Using standard PCB design and assembly technology, high precision components and circuitry can be pick and placed along with actuator components. This allows for...

Drone Payload Release

Drone Payload Release

These prototype devices have been used as drone payload release mechanisms and for protecting drugs in high security medical carts.  They can be made very thin (less than 2 mm) and lightweight (less than 1 ounce) and can use very little energy to actuate.  They can be...

Ganged Over-Stress Protected SMA actuator

Ganged Over-Stress Protected SMA actuator

This actuator has 7 mm of stroke at 125 pounds of force. These three ganged actuators operate in series and are an example of an over-stress protected actuator.Our Offices Fishers, IN, USA Silverton, OR, USAContact Us Click here for our web form, we'll get right back...

Crimps on 0.015″ diameter Flexinol

Crimps on 0.015″ diameter Flexinol

High strength crimps applied to Dynalloy's 0.015" diameter Flexinol capable of holding 30 pounds.  The wire breaks before the crimp comes off.  These crimps go way beyond anything else commercially available.Our Offices Fishers, IN, USA Silverton, OR, USAContact Us...

Nitinol Actuator Over-Stress Protection

Nitinol Actuator Over-Stress Protection

Nitinol actuators are very easily damaged if the stress exceeds roughly 40 ksi or if the temperature exceeds 150 degrees C. This is a demonstration of mechanical over-stress protection in which flexures deflect very short distances when an engineered or pre-determined...

20 mil Flexinol HT Air cooling vs Mineral Oil cooling

20 mil Flexinol HT Air cooling vs Mineral Oil cooling

20 mil Flexinol HT Air cooling vs Mineral Oil coolingOur Offices Fishers, IN, USA Silverton, OR, USAContact Us Click here for our web form, we'll get right back to you.Office Hours Mon-Sat: 8am - 5pmSun: ClosedFollow Us Someday we'll get on social media, maybe.

Center Post Rail Gun Actuator

Center Post Rail Gun Actuator

Twelve layer printed coils are used to launch a small Neodymium Iron Borate magnet. We use short 10 ms pulses in the coil at 30 Volts.Our Offices Fishers, IN, USA Silverton, OR, USAContact Us Click here for our web form, we'll get right back to you.Office Hours...

Tiny Rotary Nitinol Actuator Motion Demo

Tiny Rotary Nitinol Actuator Motion Demo

This is a rotary Nanomuscle operating at 9 Volts. It is capable 60 degrees of rotation in both directions. The actuation velocity capability is 240 degrees per second. The SMA diameter is 0.0035" HT Flexinol wire.Our Offices Fishers, IN, USA Silverton, OR, USAContact...

Nano Muscle Nitinol Walking Bug

Nano Muscle Nitinol Walking Bug

This actuator used two linear NanoMuscle motors to provide the realistic bug-like walking motion. It was a self-contained critter powered by it's own internal battery pack. It used 6" of 0.0035" diameter of a custom alloy Nitinol.Our Offices Fishers, IN, USA...

Shape Memory Alloy Motion Demo

Shape Memory Alloy Motion Demo

Our Offices Fishers, IN, USA Silverton, OR, USAContact Us Click here for our web form, we'll get right back to you.Office Hours Mon-Sat: 8am - 5pmSun: ClosedFollow Us Someday we'll get on social media, maybe.

Nitinol Actuators in series explanation

Nitinol Actuators in series explanation

The longer the length of wire, the higher the resistance, thus drawing less current for a given operating voltage. In this demo we are operating three life vest trigger mechanism in series using a single MOSFET current switch. Our Nitinol Actuation Model predicted...

High Speed Nitinol Actuation with fan forced air

High Speed Nitinol Actuation with fan forced air

This is 91 mm long S100 actuator which has 2.5 mm of stroke. It has 73 mm of 0.005 HT Flexinol wire. We operate it in a strong airflow at 9 Volts as part of our study on enhanced cooling to verify fit to our Nitinol Actuation Model.Our Offices Fishers, IN, USA...

1/4-Pound One-Way Solid State Latching Actuator

1/4-Pound One-Way Solid State Latching Actuator

A magnetic detent on one printed coil provides a preferred location for the magnet that is shared between the two coils. When the coil is energized the magnet escapes the detent and travels to the opposite side. When the coil is de-energized the magnet returns to the...

High speed Flexinol LT cooling with Mineral Oil and Dry Ice

High speed Flexinol LT cooling with Mineral Oil and Dry Ice

This video shows part of a study to determine enhanced cooling for rapid cycling of Nickel-Titanium.  We show 20" of 15 mil Flexinol LT cooling in 2.5 seconds to full recovery in Mineral Oil and Dry Ice using a 15 pound spring.  Actual data compared to data predicted...

Active Shock Damper Actuator

Active Shock Damper Actuator

This was a technology demonstrator that flew on a university Cubesat satellite. The technology was used to damp motion of the spacecraft after momentum events such as solar array deployment. Active dampers are used in tall buildings to lessen the effects of building...

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