Puris LLC, Bruceton Mills, W. Va., recently signed a limited (partially) exclusive, term license agreement with NASA’s Glenn Research Center, Cleveland to produce a high-performance alloy enhanced with hafnium 60NiTi(Hf) that will be marketed under the brand name SM-103TM. The alloy demonstrates lower residual stress than other 60NiTi alloys, resulting in improved response to heat treatment and easier processing. The alloy delivers both wear-resistant and corrosion-resistant properties, traditionally considered to be mutually exclusive, in addition to favorable load-bearing properties. These attributes make it well suited to industrial bearing and precision bearing applications.
“Puris anticipates strong demand for SM-103 for industrial bearings in such applications as wind turbines, turbochargers, aircraft engines, gears, and valves,” says Puris CEO Craig Kirsch. “We also expect it to find a market in precision bearings for timepieces, machine spindles and semiconductor manufacturing equipment, among others. But the most exciting opportunity for us will be the new applications where the alloy’s properties offer to enhance performance and endurance.”
A NASA test report on SM-100 (“Resilient and Corrosion-Proof Rolling Element Bearings Made From Superelastic Ni-Ti Alloys for Aerospace Mechanism Applications”) states, “The combination of high hardness, moderate elastic modulus, large recoverable strain, low density, and intrinsic corrosion immunity provide a path to bearings largely impervious to shock load damage. It is anticipated that bearings and components made from alloys with such attributes can alleviate many problems encountered in advanced aerospace applications.”
