Previous updates

  • Enhanced Radiopacity with Nitinol DFT® Flat Wire
    One way Fort Wayne Metals is helping to improve device visibility is through Nitinol DFT® Flat Wire. Combining Fort Wayne Metals’ DFT® wire technology with our knowledge in rolled flat wire, we can now provide ultrafine ribbons with superior radiopaque performance.
    Published: June 23rd, 2023

  • Iron-molybdenum composite wires for thin vascular or cerebrovascular devices
    A new concept from Fort Wayne Metals R&D leverages our knowledge of absorbable metal alloy systems, our experience with producing DFT® wire composites, and our unique patent portfolio. We have produced several composite wires with FeMnN alloy shells and one or more Mo filaments embedded within. 
    Published: February 6th, 2023

  • Stress Corrosion Testing of Mg Wire
    The R&D team at Fort Wayne Metals regularly participates in many of the leading academic conferences in the fields we work in. Doing so allows us to share our recent advances, stay up to date on the latest cutting-edge work, and most importantly, connect with the students, professors, engineers, and clinicians whose combined efforts ultimately turn scientific advances into concrete benefits to society.
    Published: December 10th, 2020

  • Superlative Strength Wire and Cable for Force Transmission
    Several Ultra-High-Strength (UHS) wires are produced that may be well suited to high strength wire, strands, cables and ropes used in robotics force transmission and other high-performance mono- and multifilament wire applications where high strength, low stretch and fatigue durability are important. 
    Published: August 7th, 2020

  • A CoNiCr-Nitinol Composite Wire for Guidewire Type Applications
    Fort Wayne Metals has developed a composite wire technology with integrated proximal-to-tip guidewire performance in mind. One critical area in medical device practice is in vascular access guidewires. Many workhorse guidewires, 0.3302 mm to 0.3556 mm [0.013 in to 0.014 in], use a stiff material body (often stainless steel or CoNiCr) for control and a superelastic Nitinol tip for flexible navigation. The combination of properties for these hybrid wires is often used for effective navigation to areas of the heart, brain, and vessels of appendages.
    Published: February 17th, 2020

  • What will you make with grooved wire?
    In today's update, we've proposed a few applications where grooved wire could enable additional functionality in your next generation of devices.
    Published: May 23rd, 2019

  • Fort Wayne Metals Co-authors Article Posted for Royal Society of Chemistry
    Fort Wayne Metals Research and Development Engineers have co-authored an article for the Royal Society of Chemistry’s journal Chemical Communications. Titled “Innate glycosidic activity in metallic implants for localized synthesis of antibacterial drugs”, the article describes that iron-containing metallic implants are shown to mediate hydrolysis of glycosidic linkages. This behavior can be leveraged using glucuronide prodrugs for broad-spectrum fluoroquinolone antibacterial agents, to perform localized synthesis of antimicrobials which affords a significant zone of inhibition of bacterial growth around the metallic material.
    Published: January 9th, 2019

  • Progress in Nickel-free Shape Memory Alloys (SMA)
    Commercially available nanocrystalline Nitinol wire is capable of well over 8% total recoverable strain [1], whereas conventional beta titanium alloys including the venerable beta III systems and gum metal variants max out at about 2-3% total recoverable strain in uniaxial tension [1-3]. Thus, while useful, conventional beta alloys cannot directly “stand-in” for Nitinol in medical device design.
    Published: April 1st, 2018

  • Absorbable Multifilament Composites for Tailored Degradation
    Wire cables are increasingly used in surgical procedures to provide mechanical fixation in applications like sternotomy repair and femoral cerclage. Current materials, including 316LVM, L605 and Titanium alloys, are stable in the body and are typically left behind indefinitely after healing. These implants deliver critical acute care and concurrently can lead to long-term complications such as bone stress shielding and imaging artifacts in later therapy. An emerging and more ideal solution may make use of implants which dissolve harmlessly and even beneficially after they are no longer needed. Recent efforts to develop these absorbable metals (Mg, Fe, or Zn) for medical implants have already resulted in two devices with promising outcomes and CE mark approval.
    Published: January 1st, 2018

  • Medical Experience in Nitinol Translating Towards More Effective Flight via Morphing Aerostructures
    The Amplatzer™ self-centering septal occluder revolutionized minimally invasive closure of atrial septal defects (ASDs) in children in the late 1990’s, and has served the role well from that time on. Since the 1990s, Nitinol shape memory alloys (SMAs) have enabled high performance and less invasive treatment of aortic aneurysms, biliary ducts and cerebrovascular aneurysms. All such devices have relied on the remarkable combination of shape memory, superelasticity, corrosion and fatigue durability found in well-processed Nitinol wires and tubes.
    Published: November 1st, 2017

  • Ultra-fine Shape Memory Alloy Yarn for Textiles
    Shape memory alloy (SMA) wires, such as nitinol, with diameters less than 8µm (~.0003”) can be produced by the accumulative drawing/rolling and bonding technique, which has been used to make other microscale metallics [1-2]. Further, Nitinol wire or fiber forms have already been explored for use in complex textile production for advanced function. In this working example, as shown in Figure 1, over 2,000 NiTi wires with a diameter of 2.5 µm (approx. 0.0001 in) were produced by drawing inside a specially tuned and sacrificial, deformable matrix.
    Published: May 1st, 2017


  • Resoloy®: A Magnesium Alloy for Absorbable Devices
    With the recent approval of two magnesium-based implants in Europe, we may be at the beginning of a paradigm shift in medical intervention. In the near future, devices whose structural support is only needed temporarily, such as stents, staples, and screws, may be predominantly made of absorbable metals which dissolve harmlessly and even beneficially over time. Of the three nutrient metal classes (Mg, Fe, Zn), magnesium has, of late, received the most attention.
    Published: March 1st, 2017

  • Enhanced Superelastic Temperature Range in Nitinol
    At Fort Wayne Metals, we are applying our knowledge of Nitinol alloys and processing to decrease the stress-temperature sensitivity of Nitinol and increase the temperature range where superelasticity is possible. The superelastic (SE) properties of Nitinol are generally used in moderate temperature environments. Room temperature and body temperature are the most common. 
    Published: January 1st, 2017

  • Accelerated High Stress Testing of Low Temperature NiTi Actuator Wire
    Fort Wayne Metals is engaged in alloy design, process development, and thermomechanical conditioning and test development of low through high temperature nitinol and NiTi ternary alloys for actuator applications. Custom product forms range from ultrafine filament (e.g. 50 µm) through larger wire (e.g. 2-5 mm), cables, strip and other custom product forms. The present work on low temperature actuation using superelastic grade NiTi is adapted from a talk given by the authors at SMST 2015.
    Published: November 1st, 2016

  • NiTiNb: a Stiffer and Stronger Alloy System with Many Potentials
    Unique microstructures and properties of a ternary Ni46.7Ti42.8Nb10.5 alloy reported in one of our recent studies shows great potential of this alloy system in applications that require high stiffness and large mechanical energy dissipation.
    Published: September 1st, 2016

  • It Can Groove, but Does it Jive?
    In August of 2015 progress towards making wire with microgrooves in the guidewire size range was summarized in A New Take on Wire Geometry – Functional Grooves. Now the focus has shifted to comparing the mechanical performance to that of solid round wire.
    Published: July 1st, 2016

  • Shape Setting of High Performance Beta Titanium SMA
    In our July 2015 installment, we discussed Fort Wayne Metals’ recent development of a beta titanium, nickel-free superelastic alloy. At the time, as shown in Figure 1 below, we were able to design excellent shape setting response in linear wire segments, e.g. for applications such as kink-resistant guidewire and stylets. Straight shapeset geometries were achieved through conventional stress-annealing of a suspended wire segment as well as continuous reel-to-reel wire lengths.
    Published: May 1st, 2016

  • Galvanically Active Wires for Enhanced Absorbable Device Performance
    Medical device design with absorbable metals has the potential to revolutionize patient care by providing effective short-term therapy and then harmlessly dissolving away. One of the primary hurdles to overcome is that of premature material fracture which could potentially lead to improper device function. One potential avenue to solve this problem is to harness and use a natural property of metals to our advantage, namely galvanic activity. 
    Published: March 1st, 2016

  • Thin Wall SMA Composites: Where Plating Will Not Apply
    You may know that Fort Wayne Metals has been in the business of providing effective DFT® composite wire solutions for more than 30 years into industries such as cardiac pacing and neurovascular stenting. DFT wires are commonly ordered with a specific area fraction (%) of another metal, like silver for conductivity (e.g. 35N LT-DFT-28%Ag), or platinum for x-ray-opacity (e.g. NiTi-DFT-10%Pt) – these DFT wires with less than 50% area core fractions are known as thick wall composites.
    Published: January 1st, 2016

  • Drawing Magnesium’s Strengths: Absorbables and Beyond
    Magnesium is known mainly for its light weight, but in recent years it has received considerable attention for a much different reason: the ability to be absorbed by the human body. Being a necessary nutrient, the body has natural ways of breaking down metallic magnesium over time. This means that in many medical devices, the inert stainless steel or titanium currently used could be replaced by magnesium.
    Published: October 1st, 2015

  • A New Take on Wire Geometry – Functional Grooves
    Recent processing advancements have enabled Fort Wayne Metals to form fine U-shaped features into continuous lengths of 0.010” to 0.020” wire in most of our common alloys. We are still in the R&D phase, but several combinations of groove width, depth, and diameter are possible for the same overall wire diameter. 
    Published: August 1st, 2015

  • A Fresh Take on Composite Wire Design
    Fort Wayne Metals is a designer’s toolbox, for high performance wire composites.  You may know that Fort Wayne Metals has been in the business of providing effective DFT® composite wire solutions for more than 30 years.  These solutions end up in devices that require a combination of properties not possible in mono-metals, like high fatigue with electrical conductivity (35N LT-DFT-Ag) or superelasticity with high relative x-ray-opacity (NiTi-DFT-Pt).  You may not know that there are many metallic and even non-metallic composite wire designs that have been conceived and successfully executed at a FWM.
    Published: June 1st, 2015

  • High Performance Beta Titanium Alloys
    While Nitinol is becoming more and more popular in the world of medical devices due to its superelastic and shape memory properties, its nickel content is cause for concern with some applications. The Fort Wayne Metals R & D team has therefore begun investigating nickel-free alternatives.
    Published: July 1st, 2015

Previous updates

  • Enhanced Radiopacity with Nitinol DFT® Flat Wire
    One way Fort Wayne Metals is helping to improve device visibility is through Nitinol DFT® Flat Wire. Combining Fort Wayne Metals’ DFT® wire technology with our knowledge in rolled flat wire, we can now provide ultrafine ribbons with superior radiopaque performance.
    Published: June 23rd, 2023

  • Iron-molybdenum composite wires for thin vascular or cerebrovascular devices
    A new concept from Fort Wayne Metals R&D leverages our knowledge of absorbable metal alloy systems, our experience with producing DFT® wire composites, and our unique patent portfolio. We have produced several composite wires with FeMnN alloy shells and one or more Mo filaments embedded within. 
    Published: February 6th, 2023

  • Stress Corrosion Testing of Mg Wire
    The R&D team at Fort Wayne Metals regularly participates in many of the leading academic conferences in the fields we work in. Doing so allows us to share our recent advances, stay up to date on the latest cutting-edge work, and most importantly, connect with the students, professors, engineers, and clinicians whose combined efforts ultimately turn scientific advances into concrete benefits to society.
    Published: December 10th, 2020

  • Superlative Strength Wire and Cable for Force Transmission
    Several Ultra-High-Strength (UHS) wires are produced that may be well suited to high strength wire, strands, cables and ropes used in robotics force transmission and other high-performance mono- and multifilament wire applications where high strength, low stretch and fatigue durability are important. 
    Published: August 7th, 2020

  • A CoNiCr-Nitinol Composite Wire for Guidewire Type Applications
    Fort Wayne Metals has developed a composite wire technology with integrated proximal-to-tip guidewire performance in mind. One critical area in medical device practice is in vascular access guidewires. Many workhorse guidewires, 0.3302 mm to 0.3556 mm [0.013 in to 0.014 in], use a stiff material body (often stainless steel or CoNiCr) for control and a superelastic Nitinol tip for flexible navigation. The combination of properties for these hybrid wires is often used for effective navigation to areas of the heart, brain, and vessels of appendages.
    Published: February 17th, 2020

  • What will you make with grooved wire?
    In today's update, we've proposed a few applications where grooved wire could enable additional functionality in your next generation of devices.
    Published: May 23rd, 2019

  • Fort Wayne Metals Co-authors Article Posted for Royal Society of Chemistry
    Fort Wayne Metals Research and Development Engineers have co-authored an article for the Royal Society of Chemistry’s journal Chemical Communications. Titled “Innate glycosidic activity in metallic implants for localized synthesis of antibacterial drugs”, the article describes that iron-containing metallic implants are shown to mediate hydrolysis of glycosidic linkages. This behavior can be leveraged using glucuronide prodrugs for broad-spectrum fluoroquinolone antibacterial agents, to perform localized synthesis of antimicrobials which affords a significant zone of inhibition of bacterial growth around the metallic material.
    Published: January 9th, 2019

  • Progress in Nickel-free Shape Memory Alloys (SMA)
    Commercially available nanocrystalline Nitinol wire is capable of well over 8% total recoverable strain [1], whereas conventional beta titanium alloys including the venerable beta III systems and gum metal variants max out at about 2-3% total recoverable strain in uniaxial tension [1-3]. Thus, while useful, conventional beta alloys cannot directly “stand-in” for Nitinol in medical device design.
    Published: April 1st, 2018

  • Absorbable Multifilament Composites for Tailored Degradation
    Wire cables are increasingly used in surgical procedures to provide mechanical fixation in applications like sternotomy repair and femoral cerclage. Current materials, including 316LVM, L605 and Titanium alloys, are stable in the body and are typically left behind indefinitely after healing. These implants deliver critical acute care and concurrently can lead to long-term complications such as bone stress shielding and imaging artifacts in later therapy. An emerging and more ideal solution may make use of implants which dissolve harmlessly and even beneficially after they are no longer needed. Recent efforts to develop these absorbable metals (Mg, Fe, or Zn) for medical implants have already resulted in two devices with promising outcomes and CE mark approval.
    Published: January 1st, 2018

  • Medical Experience in Nitinol Translating Towards More Effective Flight via Morphing Aerostructures
    The Amplatzer™ self-centering septal occluder revolutionized minimally invasive closure of atrial septal defects (ASDs) in children in the late 1990’s, and has served the role well from that time on. Since the 1990s, Nitinol shape memory alloys (SMAs) have enabled high performance and less invasive treatment of aortic aneurysms, biliary ducts and cerebrovascular aneurysms. All such devices have relied on the remarkable combination of shape memory, superelasticity, corrosion and fatigue durability found in well-processed Nitinol wires and tubes.
    Published: November 1st, 2017

  • Ultra-fine Shape Memory Alloy Yarn for Textiles
    Shape memory alloy (SMA) wires, such as nitinol, with diameters less than 8µm (~.0003”) can be produced by the accumulative drawing/rolling and bonding technique, which has been used to make other microscale metallics [1-2]. Further, Nitinol wire or fiber forms have already been explored for use in complex textile production for advanced function. In this working example, as shown in Figure 1, over 2,000 NiTi wires with a diameter of 2.5 µm (approx. 0.0001 in) were produced by drawing inside a specially tuned and sacrificial, deformable matrix.
    Published: May 1st, 2017


  • Resoloy®: A Magnesium Alloy for Absorbable Devices
    With the recent approval of two magnesium-based implants in Europe, we may be at the beginning of a paradigm shift in medical intervention. In the near future, devices whose structural support is only needed temporarily, such as stents, staples, and screws, may be predominantly made of absorbable metals which dissolve harmlessly and even beneficially over time. Of the three nutrient metal classes (Mg, Fe, Zn), magnesium has, of late, received the most attention.
    Published: March 1st, 2017

  • Enhanced Superelastic Temperature Range in Nitinol
    At Fort Wayne Metals, we are applying our knowledge of Nitinol alloys and processing to decrease the stress-temperature sensitivity of Nitinol and increase the temperature range where superelasticity is possible. The superelastic (SE) properties of Nitinol are generally used in moderate temperature environments. Room temperature and body temperature are the most common. 
    Published: January 1st, 2017

  • Accelerated High Stress Testing of Low Temperature NiTi Actuator Wire
    Fort Wayne Metals is engaged in alloy design, process development, and thermomechanical conditioning and test development of low through high temperature nitinol and NiTi ternary alloys for actuator applications. Custom product forms range from ultrafine filament (e.g. 50 µm) through larger wire (e.g. 2-5 mm), cables, strip and other custom product forms. The present work on low temperature actuation using superelastic grade NiTi is adapted from a talk given by the authors at SMST 2015.
    Published: November 1st, 2016

  • NiTiNb: a Stiffer and Stronger Alloy System with Many Potentials
    Unique microstructures and properties of a ternary Ni46.7Ti42.8Nb10.5 alloy reported in one of our recent studies shows great potential of this alloy system in applications that require high stiffness and large mechanical energy dissipation.
    Published: September 1st, 2016

  • It Can Groove, but Does it Jive?
    In August of 2015 progress towards making wire with microgrooves in the guidewire size range was summarized in A New Take on Wire Geometry – Functional Grooves. Now the focus has shifted to comparing the mechanical performance to that of solid round wire.
    Published: July 1st, 2016

  • Shape Setting of High Performance Beta Titanium SMA
    In our July 2015 installment, we discussed Fort Wayne Metals’ recent development of a beta titanium, nickel-free superelastic alloy. At the time, as shown in Figure 1 below, we were able to design excellent shape setting response in linear wire segments, e.g. for applications such as kink-resistant guidewire and stylets. Straight shapeset geometries were achieved through conventional stress-annealing of a suspended wire segment as well as continuous reel-to-reel wire lengths.
    Published: May 1st, 2016

  • Galvanically Active Wires for Enhanced Absorbable Device Performance
    Medical device design with absorbable metals has the potential to revolutionize patient care by providing effective short-term therapy and then harmlessly dissolving away. One of the primary hurdles to overcome is that of premature material fracture which could potentially lead to improper device function. One potential avenue to solve this problem is to harness and use a natural property of metals to our advantage, namely galvanic activity. 
    Published: March 1st, 2016

  • Thin Wall SMA Composites: Where Plating Will Not Apply
    You may know that Fort Wayne Metals has been in the business of providing effective DFT® composite wire solutions for more than 30 years into industries such as cardiac pacing and neurovascular stenting. DFT wires are commonly ordered with a specific area fraction (%) of another metal, like silver for conductivity (e.g. 35N LT-DFT-28%Ag), or platinum for x-ray-opacity (e.g. NiTi-DFT-10%Pt) – these DFT wires with less than 50% area core fractions are known as thick wall composites.
    Published: January 1st, 2016

  • Drawing Magnesium’s Strengths: Absorbables and Beyond
    Magnesium is known mainly for its light weight, but in recent years it has received considerable attention for a much different reason: the ability to be absorbed by the human body. Being a necessary nutrient, the body has natural ways of breaking down metallic magnesium over time. This means that in many medical devices, the inert stainless steel or titanium currently used could be replaced by magnesium.
    Published: October 1st, 2015

  • A New Take on Wire Geometry – Functional Grooves
    Recent processing advancements have enabled Fort Wayne Metals to form fine U-shaped features into continuous lengths of 0.010” to 0.020” wire in most of our common alloys. We are still in the R&D phase, but several combinations of groove width, depth, and diameter are possible for the same overall wire diameter. 
    Published: August 1st, 2015

  • A Fresh Take on Composite Wire Design
    Fort Wayne Metals is a designer’s toolbox, for high performance wire composites.  You may know that Fort Wayne Metals has been in the business of providing effective DFT® composite wire solutions for more than 30 years.  These solutions end up in devices that require a combination of properties not possible in mono-metals, like high fatigue with electrical conductivity (35N LT-DFT-Ag) or superelasticity with high relative x-ray-opacity (NiTi-DFT-Pt).  You may not know that there are many metallic and even non-metallic composite wire designs that have been conceived and successfully executed at a FWM.
    Published: June 1st, 2015

  • High Performance Beta Titanium Alloys
    While Nitinol is becoming more and more popular in the world of medical devices due to its superelastic and shape memory properties, its nickel content is cause for concern with some applications. The Fort Wayne Metals R & D team has therefore begun investigating nickel-free alternatives.
    Published: July 1st, 2015
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