Welding of shape memory alloy to stainless steel for medical occluder
(1. State Key Laboratory of Advanced Welding and Joining, Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin 150001, China;
2. School of Materials Science and Engineering, Dalian University of Technology, Dal)
2. School of Materials Science and Engineering, Dalian University of Technology, Dal)
Abstract: Dissimilar metal joining between NiTi shape memory alloy (SMA) and stainless steel was conducted. A cluster of NiTi SMA wires were first joined with tungsten inert gas (TIG) welding process, then the NiTi SMA TIG weld was welded to a stainless steel pipe with laser spot welding process. The microstructure of the welds was examined with an optical microscope and the elemental distribution in the welds was measured by electron probe microanalysis (EPMA). The results show that TiC compounds dispersively distribute in the NiTi SMA TIG weld. However, the amount of TiC compounds greatly decreases around the fusion boundary of the laser spot weld between the NiTi SMA and stainless steel. Mutual diffusion between NiTi shape memory alloy and stainless steel happen within a short distance near the fusion boundary, and intermetallic compounds such as Ni3Ti+(Fe,Ni)Ti appear around the fusion boundary.
Key words: medical occluder; NiTi alloy; shape memory alloy; stainless steel; laser spot welding; dissimilar metal joining; Ni3Ti; (Fe,Ni)Ti