Optimising Additive Manufacturing of NiTi and NiMnGa Shape Memory Alloys: A Review

NiTi and NiMnGa stand out as prime thermal and magnetic shape memory alloys (SMAs), possessing a superior shape memory effect (SME) and superelasticity (SE). These alloys have crucial current and potential future applications across industries. Additive manufacturing (AM) offers a transformative app...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Ali Ramezannejad, Daniel East, Anthony Bruce Murphy, Guoxing Lu, Kun Vanna Yang
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: MDPI AG 2025-04-01
Series:Metals
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Online Access:https://www.mdpi.com/2075-4701/15/5/488
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Summary:NiTi and NiMnGa stand out as prime thermal and magnetic shape memory alloys (SMAs), possessing a superior shape memory effect (SME) and superelasticity (SE). These alloys have crucial current and potential future applications across industries. Additive manufacturing (AM) offers a transformative approach to fabricating these materials into complex geometries; however, the quest to create integral additively manufactured structures with reliable thermal or magnetic shape memory properties remains a recent and fast-emerging research frontier. This article provides a comprehensive review on (i) the intricate principles giving rise to the thermal SME and SE in NiTi, and the magnetic SME in NiMnGa alloys, emphasising their specific relevance in the realm of AM, and (ii) the latest developments, recent findings, and ongoing challenges in the AM of NiTi- and NiMnGa-based SMAs, including their functional lattice structures. Based on this review, for the first time, novel, empirically derived AM process design maps tailored to maximise SME and SE in laser powder bed fusion- and directed-energy deposition-processed NiTi structures are proposed. Similarly, promising avenues to resolve the key challenges regarding the AM of NiMnGa magnetic SMAs are suggested. This article concludes by outlining the most promising future research directions shaping the trajectory of AM of these SMAs.
ISSN:2075-4701