There
is a large number of possible applications for platinum allloys at
elevated
temperatures. The alloys should be easily deformable and
hardenable. Binary platinum alloys that can be strengthened reversibly
by precipitaion hardening have so far not been found. Therefore,
experiments are carried out with ternary alloys whose strength can be
modified by heat treatments. It is possible to strengthen the material
significantly with small additions of alloying elements. By varying
composition and production process, it is attempted to optimze such
platinum allyos for specific applications.
shape
memory alloys for architecture
The
best known and most extensively studied shape memory alloy is Ni-Ti.
The shape memory effect is caused by a phase transformation between
martensitic and austenitic phase at transformation temperatures not far
from room temperature. The transformation temperature is strongly
influenced by the composition, but also by the thermo- mechanical
treatment. Ni-Ti contains a considerable amount of Ti and is difficult
to produce, two factors that render it relatively expensive. An
Fe-based shape memory would allow for an application of the material on
a large scale, e.g. for earth quake security measures of buildings and
other consructions like e.g. bridges. For this purpose, the
transformation temperature of Fe-based shape memory alloys needs to be
adjusted.