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"Smart wire"/"Muscle wire"/Flexinol

Started by John Candy, Aug 20 2015 23:42

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John Candy

"Smart wire"/"Muscle wire"/Flexinol

Has anyone used this material in the garden for operating signals (or any other accessories)?

John.
My fellow Members, ask not what your Society can do for you, ask what you can do for your Society.

cabbage

John,

We have had this conversation before in 2009... I even gave you the lengths and spring tensions to make it work. The answer is YES. But you have to remember to shield the wire with a fine bore plastic tube to keep it hot.

regards

ralph

John Candy

QuoteA 10cm length develops 200g of pull and "shrinks" by 5%. Crimp the connectors at the ends as the heat from a soldering iron destroys the crystal structure. You have to use a 200g tension spring at the other end to pull the length back to size as it cools. I get mine from eBay! Look under "Memory wire" and Muscle wire".

Ralph,

Thank you, yes, indeed you did.
It was the problem of ambient temperature variation/cooling effects of "breeze" and wet which might affect a garden application which had me thinking.

The "Smart wire" comes in various gauges but for a signal you don't need a lot of "oomph" so the fine grade should do .....unless the heavier grades would be better at heat retention and give a slower movement to a semaphore arm as consequence of taking longer to heat and cool down?

Regards,
John.
My fellow Members, ask not what your Society can do for you, ask what you can do for your Society.