EvMick@aol.com wrote:
<snip>
> That's the 'memory metal"?.....that always seem kind of a 'gimmick' to
> me...but come to think of it...nitinol might have micro or nano
> applications...
Well, yes it does. Folks have been working on this for quite some time,
including me. The trick is to get the material produced by thin film methods,
and patterned onto MEMS devices. There is a company that does this, and you can
read all about it at:
As part of a project for one of my customers in the nanotech development world,
I have been working with this company to develop actuators small enough to
handle molecules. The first proof of feasibility paper has been sent to NASA
for publication, and we have applied for funding to develop working prototypes.
I will let you know when publication happens.
A big question is how small a crystal of alloy can be fabricated that still has
usable lattice transition properties. We have shown it is fine down to the
micron range, and suspect that it will be good down to a lattice of a few tens
of atoms, but we do not really know. I will be quite happy with results on the
100 nm scale. With mussels this size, I can attach rigid structures that have
working points down in the 10 nm range, which is small enough to move large
molecular building blocks around. The goal is to produce the worlds smallest
robot hands, to help develope the first nanotechnology assemblers. (After
which, of course, they go on the junk pile.)
-Ken
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