Literature describing a range of medical applications for Nitinol 60 material and processes has been released by Abbott Ball Co, West Hartford, CT.

In the more than 50 years since its discovery, there has been very little success in commercializing Nitinol 60, an inter-metallic alloy containing 60% nickel and 40% titanium. Difficulties in machining and work-hardening caused the material to be effectively abandoned in the late 1950s, even though the material is inherently hard, wear resistant, nonmagnetic, corrosion proof, biocompatible, weighs less than most competing alloys, and has a super-fine grain structure that permits tight tolerances and fine edges.

Recently, however, Abbott, with guidance from NASA, engineered breakthrough methods to work with this material for medical applications like prosthetic implants, surgical instruments, and others. Nitinol 60 flexes up to 5%, which allows prostheses to “give” more naturally without losing their original shapes. These material characteristics are important when it comes to the design, engineering, and manufacture of such medical devices as hip joints and sharp surgical instruments.

Abbott started with NASA’s microstructure findings and the Nitinol alloy charts to develop steps for machining. Abbott’s patent-pending process employs powder-metal manufacturing methods and subsequent machining.