Special Issue on Shape Memory Alloys and Their Applications

Materials Transactions, Vol. 47, No. 3 (2006) p. 504

Special Issue on Shape Memory Alloys and Their Applications PREFACE Shape memory alloys have attracted attention due to their fascinating properties for applications as well as their fundamental aspects of deformation and transformation behavior. A lot of shape memory alloys have been developed since the Au–Cd alloy was discovered in 1951. However, applications of shape memory alloys were realized after the Ti–Ni alloy was found in 1963 and developed extensively in 1980s. The Ti–Ni and Ti–Ni–X alloys have been successfully used for many applications in the fields of household appliances, machinery, transportation technology, construction technology, medical applications and so on. Recently, intensive researches to develop new shape memory alloys, such as thin film shape memory alloys, ferromagnetic shape memory alloys, high temperature shape memory alloys and Nifree biomedical shape memory alloys, have been carried out in order to break through the limitation of existing shape memory alloys. Also the shape memory alloy is considered to be one of key materials for constructing smart structures and systems. The objective of this special issue is to inform recent achievements and future prospects of all aspects of shape memory alloys, covering from fundamentals to applications. We sincerely appreciate the great efforts of the authors and reviewers who contributed to this special issue. February 23, 2006 Shuichi Miyazaki1 Tomoyuki Kakeshita2 Toshio Sakuma3 Minoru Nishida4 Yasubumi Furuya5 Hideki Hosoda6 1

Institute of Materials Science, University of Tsukuba, Tsukuba 305-8573, Japan Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Graduate School of Engineering, Osaka University, Suita 565-0871, Japan 3 Department of Human Wellbeing and Assistive Engineering, Oita University, Oita 870-1192, Japan 4 Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Kumamoto University, Kumamoto 860-8555, Japan 5 Faculty of Science and Technology, Hirosaki University, Hirosaki 036-8561, Japan 6 Precision and Intelligence Laboratory, Tokyo Institute of Technology, Yokohama 226-8503, Japan 2