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The ThermobileTM: A Nitinol-Based Scientific Toy

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George B. Kauffman and Isaac Mayo

California State University, Fresno, Department of Chemistry, 2555 E. San Ramon Avenue, Fresno, CA 93740-0070

J. Chem. Educ., 1998, 75 (3), p 313

DOI: 10.1021/ed075p313

Publication Date (Web): March 1, 1998

Section:

History, Education, and Documentation

Abstract

The serendipitous discovery of Nitinol, "the metal with a memory," has revolutionized manufacturing and medicine as countless products that "think" for themselves and sense changes in themselves and their surroundings and respond appropriately enter the marketplace. This best known example of a so-called "intelligent" or "smart" material undergoes changes that occur between two solid phases, which involve rearrangement of atoms within a crystal lattice. It "remembers" its shape because the phase change (between austenite and martensite phases) affects its structure on the atomic level only, without disturbing the arrangement of the crystals, which would be irreversible.In 1981 Frederick E. Wang patented and in 1985 began to market a scientific toy called the Thermobile^TM, which lends itself readily to lecture demonstrations and laboratory experiments. This engine with no visible power source is designed to demonstrate the conversion of low temperature thermal energy to mechanical energy by means of a Nitinol loop wrapped around a system of two pulleys. Sources of the Thermobile^TM and Nitinol are given.