The History of Nitinol
Nitinol was first discovered at the Naval Ordinance Laboratory in 1959 by William Buehler and Frederick Wang. It was originally intended as a heat, fatigue, and impact resistant material for missile nose cones, but at a board meeting, someone put the strip of metal, which had been bent by many others earlier, under his lighter to test how heat resistant it was. Everyone there was very surprised as they saw the metal strip bend itself back to its original shape, before any of the others had bent it. However, until 1990, it was rarely used due to extremely difficult manufacturing processes. Because the transition temperature will change with only a very slight change in the composition, and Titanium oxidizes out of the alloy when it is heated in the presence of oxygen, Nitinol must be processed in an oxygenless environment, making it much harder to use.