Shape Memory Alloy May Be Ready for Market. Nanomuscle, a private company 45 miles northeast of San Francisco, uses shape-memory for a number of high-tech applications. Investors and analysts are eagerly watching. By Barnaby J. Feder. [New York Times: Technology]

Nitinol is an alloy that has been around since the early 60's. What makes this alloy unique is it's ability to change shape based on the temperature that it is exposed to. So, you heat the metal and form it into one shape, and then cool it and form it into a second. From then on, all you need to do is re-heat the metal to get it to "pop" into it's original heated state. Nitinol can also be made to change shape by applying an electrical charge to heat the metal. The metal can only contract about 4-5% of it's length, so this somewhat limits it's applications.

Toy makers have already comitted to developing toys for the 2003 christmas season that will have this technology in it. The medical device market has been using this product since the 1990's, and it has also has been used for remote telecom switches as well as in shower heads to prevent scalding.

Possible Uses: To unfurl an umbrella in the heat of the day, the expand a radiatior when it gets hot/constrict the vanes when it is cold, to power the legs on a mechanical insect.

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