Development of shape memory alloy clamp by wire arc additive manufacturing for temperature based self-opening system

Abstract

Shape Memory alloys show a special property through which they can remember their parent shape, and this parent shape could be achieved from any other deformed shape by heating. In our study we are printing these shape memory alloys, i.e NiTi and NiTiCux using a Wire Arc Additive Manufacturing (WAAM) setup. The deposition is cut into sheets using wire-Electric Discharge Machining and then trained for controlled actuation. To achieve our objective, firstly the WAAM parameters are studied with respect to the uniformity and thickness of deposition. This is done by employing screening design and full factorial design for voltage, wire-feed rate and argon flow rate as input variables and thickness of deposition as output variable. After completely understanding the WAAM operation, NiTi single layer deposition is done by using full factorial design and studied for uniformity and transformation temperature.