[TPIN] Nitinol - The metal with a memory

[Allegro69]

Since we've been on the topic of valves and the various metals that they're
made of, it occurred to me about the metals that are used to manufacture
bells and other parts of the trumpet (or any brass instrument). We have our
choice of bells made of yellow brass, gold brass, sterling silver,
beryllium, and titanium. All have their unique tonal characteristics to
which we choose to benefit by. This brings to mind a metal called nitinol.
It was developed by the Navy Ordinance Lab for whatever purpose the Navy
wanted to use it for. My brother, a physicist, at the time was involved in
that project and showed me some amazing things about the metal. He described
it as 'a metal with a memory'. It's composed of both nickel and titanium
extruded into wire form. To demonstrate it's 'memory', he took a piece of
wire and twisted it to form my name Bob. After he did that, he stretched it
out to be straight. He then took a match to the straightened wire and lo and
behold, the heat from the match brought it back to the form 'Bob'. While I
don't know what could be done to manufacture this metal into a more
substantial flat stock to fashion bells, nor could I venture a guess as to
what it's tonal qualities might be, it would be interesting to bounce back
and forth. If this were to be a viable material for fashioning bells, and we
had the misfortune of denting the horn, rather than trying to hammer or roll
out the dent, applying heat to it could bring it back to where it was before
the dent. If not viable for instruments, this might be good to restore metal
mutes which over the time have become dented from fallouts where the mutes
end up on a hard floor.
BOB