Development of Cu-Zn-Al based shape memory alloy

Shape Memory Alloys (SMA) has intriguing attributes of recovering apparent permanent deformations to about 10% and above. In addition, these are metal alloys and display typical features of metals like resistance, stiffness, and workability etc. The blend of all these properties makes it easy to know why these materials are smart in the grounds of engineering and ascend to a new way of thoughts about the design of mechanical systems. The present study aims to develop Cu-Zn-Al based shape memory alloy by melting route, finding out the transformation temperatures and the development of shape memory effect. The design and methodology approach includes the mixture of test material which is chips of pure Copper (99.9%), Zinc (99%) and Aluminum (85%). All these chips are mixed and melted. Furthermore, the melt was die casted in open air in a capsule shape. X-ray fluorescence (XRF) was carried out to check the estimated composition and afterwards spectroscopy was done to check the actual composition of the alloy. In addition, the alloy, in a capsule form, was cold rolled up to 1 mm thickness with inter pass annealing at 350°C to form a wire. After that the thermal properties of the wire were examined by a custom made experiment following the principles of Differential Scanning Calorimeter (DSC). The final wire was then heat treated 830C° for 18 minutes followed by step quenching and then aging at 150C° for 90 minutes followed by quenching to induce the shape memory effect (SME) in the alloy.