May 19 2006
Raymor Industries has announced that its wholly-owned subsidiary, AP&C Advanced Powders and Coatings has received an order from The Boeing Company for the purchase of spherical nitinol powder, a new value-added, specialized material now being offered by AP&C. Boeing is looking toward incorporating the special properties of nitinol into their next generation of composite aerospace applications.
Nitinol refers to a group of alloy comprising primarily of nickel and titanium in roughly 1:1 ratios. Nitinol exhibits, depending on elemental concentrations and processing, shape memory and/or super-elastic properties. A shape memory alloy is a metal that remembers its geometry. After bending or deforming, nitinol regains its original geometry by itself during heating (one-way effect) or simply during unloading (superelasticity), properties quite useful for composite enhancement in aerospace applications. Nitinol is biocompatible, and thus also has numerous applications in the biomedical field.
"Raymor has broken through with a third value-added product from our Metallic Powders Division," said Stephane Robert, President of Raymor Industries. "We see a large potential for spherical nitinol powders in the aerospace and biomedical fields, including the integration of these materials, along with our high quality single-walled carbon nanotubes into nanocomposites for new aircraft," adds Mr. Robert.
AP&C's metallic powders are produced using the patented Plasma Atomization Process. This globally unique process produces a highly pure metallic powder with an exceptional sphericity. These two properties allow AP&C's metallic powders to offer the best performance for aerospace, aeronautical, and biomedical applications. The patented Plasma Atomization Process, of which AP&C holds an exclusive, worldwide license, was developed at the beginning of the 90's at Hydro-Quebec's Shawinigan laboratory in collaboration with Noranda.
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