Thermo-mechanical characterization of Cu–Al–Ni shape memory alloys elaborated by powder metallurgy

Some years ago a new powder metallurgy process was developed for the elaboration of Cu–Al–Ni shape memory alloys in order to overcome drawbacks observed in samples produced by conventional casting. This method introduced improvements in the mechanical and thermo-mechanical alloy properties; however, it has not permitted an accurate control of the composition and, in turn, of the transformation temperatures of the alloys. An additional step, mechanical alloying, was introduced to have a better control of this parameter. This work presents the characterization of the alloys obtained by the improved method. In comparison with samples produced by other methods, indications of a similar thermo-mechanical behaviour (super-elastic and pseudo-elastic effect) were observed for these samples.