ADVANCED MATERIALS & PROCESSES | OCTOBER 2024 35 NITINOL ‘GOLD RUSH:’ CONFLICT AND GROWTH I t is easy to be a genius in hindsight, but far more difficult to prophesy. Maybe you knew a legitimate prophet, but I doubt anyone predicted the extent of the demand for Nitinol in our industry. A 50 to 100% swell in the need for some Nitinol products in 2022 seemed like it may fizzle, yet endures well into 2024. How has this rush altered the Nitinol-supplier landscape and how will it affect our community including SMST in months and years ahead? I am no prophet, but will speculate a little, provide some perspective on market response to date, and share a little news on what is ahead for SMST. The 1848 gold rush into California’s mountains and streams brought a tumultuous mix of opportunity and conflict, ending with few dreams fulfilled and many left rebuilding on new ground. Similarly, medical device materials suppliers, OEMs, and CMOs endured an exciting (it was at least exciting, right?) rush of demand for structural metals, including but not limited to Nitinol. This rush brought with it excitement, shortages, new investment opportunities, and new conflict, including lead times where “weeks” actually meant months. Still, as much as the turns of 1848-1855 and COVID-19 were watershed moments, our “Nitinol Gold Rush” has changed the direction of history. Are we in a better place? The press for Nitinol impacted the materials community more than any other metal because of its peculiar utility and uber dependence on a small number of suppliers capping at about 180,000 kg worldwide, i.e., Confluent/ATI, Fort Wayne Metals, G.RAU, Resonetics/SAES Smart Materials/Ingpuls Medical, and Furukawa, each with uniquely valuable production methods and marketable forms. Adjustments were made by each company to address the rush by building capacity, establishing new partnerships, and redesigning corporate structure against aims of lead time reduction, improved material quality, profit, and iterative development agility. What supplier adjustments were made? I cannot give an exhaustive view but will share what we know. In October 2023, Resonetics announced the completion of their acquisition of Memry Corp. and SAES Smart Materials. This has brought integration of a rounded supplier from alloy R&D to production melting and casting, complex device prototyping, and scalable component production. As per their announcement in January 2024, Confluent invested to increase melt capacity 300% via ATI over years to come, and reorganized tube hollows production to help integrate and better serve the market with more investments slated to roll off the mill between now and 2026. The G.RAU Group made significant investments to expand VAR/EBR refining capacities to make HCF-SE Nitinol and grow inhouse gun-drilling and tube manufacturing in Pforzheim and Costa Rica. The G.RAU Group also invested significantly into fatigue and corrosion testing to support clients in an integrated fashion toward device approval. In 2023, Fort Wayne Metals began a series of investments to achieve a four-fold increase in Nitinol mill production over 2022. These moves included: A 50% Nitinol melt capacity increase completed in July 2023 with additional labor and expansion of melt schedule; a compounding 50% capacity increase initiated in September 2023 and realized in August 2024 with a new withdrawal added to the existing primary melt furnace; and finally, in February 2024, a second VAR furnace, ordered with expected delivery in February 2025 and commissioning and internal validation through Q3 2025, which will nearly double previously expanded capacities. In short, suppliers are listening and putting up cash to invest for the long haul in our Nitinol-powered markets. Through fits, pains, and celebrations, if demand keeps pace, I believe we are collectively in a better place to respond, together. Where can we meet in 2025 as an SMST family and discuss these happenings face-to-face, perhaps over a cup of your beverage of choice? (I’ll buy.) With an impressive Portugal SMST 2024 behind us, I am excited for the upcoming SMST meetings in Ireland in 2025 and California in 2026. One could say that we are beginning a new tradition of a topical off-year event. The inaugural offyear event was sold out in Galway in May 2018, where we focused on bringing education and technical talks via a pithy one-day event focused on infusing the latest Nitinol know-how into the burgeoning Irish med-tech industry. This would-be tradition was derailed by multifaceted pandemia, and many readers will know nothing about it. All of this is to say please mark your calendars for May 22, 2025, for our one-day event in Galway, titled “Engaging and Enabling Irish MedTech for Design and Manufacturing with Nitinol.” Space is limited and registration begins this December. I hope to see you there! Jeremy E. Schaffer SMST President, 2017-2018 Director R&D, Fort Wayne Metals GUEST EDITORIAL 2 Schaffer
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