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From: Brian_Sullivan@Carleton.CA (Brian Sullivan)
Subject: Re: nitinol underwater?
Message-ID: <Brian_Sullivan.30.2DB82059@Carleton.CA>
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References: <CoIzGw.E70@murdoch.acc.Virginia.EDU> <2p6pck$lo1@news.nynexst.com>
Date: Fri, 22 Apr 1994 19:07:05 GMT
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In article <2p6pck$lo1@news.nynexst.com> baruch@nynexst.com (Robert Baruch) writes:

>  I once attempted to calculate how much Nitinol I'd need to obtain the travel
>and force that a human lower leg can perform.  I don't recall the details, but
>I think I used about one inch of travel (at the knee; you'll get more travel
>at the foot due to mechanical leverage) and something like 100 lb exerted at
>the foot (which you then have to multiply by the leverage, getting something
>very large).  I think I ended up with $10,000 worth.  Not very project-friendly. 

>  I came to the conclusion that there was only so much you could do with Nitinol,
>and that compared with the length of travel and force of contraction, it cost
>too much for any human-capability apparatus.  Is it still something like $30/m?

I tend to agree that nitinol is useless to large applications ... but if you 
are trying to build a small ( lets say a solar powered ant ) then .... 

