Smart or multifunctional materials change their properties as a result of external stimuli such as electric fields or temperature and thus form the basis of innovative drive systems. Smart metals such as "shape memory alloys" (SMA) act as artificial muscles and are simultaneously their own state sensor or condition monitor (so-called "self-sensing"). For the production of the future, these materials will be used to create intelligent and energy-efficient systems such as compressed air-free gripping and handling systems or bio-inspired soft robotic structures. Eliminating compressed air in production is a crucial factor for cutting down energy consumption, guaranteeing highest air quality and reducing noise. The replacement of pneumatic systems by intelligent electrified drives is key for the digitalization of production and thus competitiveness on the global market. The first part of the presentation will give an overview of previous research and development work on SMA-driven gripping and handling systems in production applications as well as a perspective for the future with a focus on sustainability and energy efficiency.
The second part will focus on the emerging SMA application field of Elastocalorics. Elastocalorics is an innovative, disruptive heating and cooling technology that has been declared by the EU Commission and the US Department of Energy as the most promising alternative to existing vapor compression processes due to its high energy efficiency and absolute climate friendliness. The technology is based on the extraordinary heating and cooling capacity of SMAs, e.g. nickel-titanium. During simple mechanical loading and unloading of superelastic SMAs, considerable amounts of latent heat are released or absorbed by phase transformations in the crystal lattice, so that temperature differences of about 40 K can already be generated with currently available materials originally developed for biomedical purposes. The talk will give an overview of preliminary experimental investigations to identify thermodynamically optimized processes as well as the development of a first machine demonstrator.