About SMA/Muscle Wire
Information about SMA/Muscle Wire
Musclewire is a product range of robot actuators which uses SMA as the driving force.
SMA stands for "Shape Metal Alloy", and is also called Nitinol, as it is made from Nickle and Titanium hence the NiTi-nol name
SMA are metallic alloys that may be formed into a specific shape. If the shape is bent of folded, then when an even heat is applied the alloy returns to it's original shape.
The SMA we sell is in the form of wire. The wire is mounted on a robotic structure, often with a weight which stretches the wire. Then (often under command of a robot controller) electrical power is applied to the length of the wire, and it heats up triggering the SMA to reshape, which in this case is to shorten back to it's original length.
We sell SMA wire rated at 70 deg C, and at 90 deg C. These are the temperatures that the wire needs to be heated to trigger their reshaping. In a section of wire some 2 cm in length, the electric current needed may be between 500mA and 1 Amp.
There is a Muscle Wire book with kit, that we sell that has a full description of muscle wire, and many experiments to do, and several lengths of wire (at different thicknesses) with which to experiment.
Nitinol wire is rated at the two temperatures, and also by it's thickness. We sell MW in several thicknesses they being 37 microns, 50 microns, 100 microns and 150 microns...where a micron is a millionth part of a meter (or 10 raised to the power of -6). High quality Australian wool is rated at 15 microns.
Please proceed to the Muscle Wire page