Materials/Alloys
Metals used in Wire Forming
Metals used in wire forming include stainless steel, nickel titanium, and numerous alloys.
These metals have different properties that influence the wire forming process and characteristics of the part.
Ultimate Wireforms uses high quality materials from US Producers.
Nickel Titanium
also known as Nitinol or NiTi, is highly resistant to corrosion and is stable across a wide temperature range. Nickel alloys have favorable mechanical characteristics, such as superelasticity and shape memory; when used in wire forming are non magnetic and poor electrical conductors, making nickel a suitable alternative to steel when non magnetic components are required.
Nitinol is highly biocompatible and has properties suitable for use in orthodontic devices. Due to nitinol's unique properties, it has seen a large demand for use in medical devices.
Stainless Steel
is comprised of chromium and other metals, which gives it excellent corrosion resistance, durability, tensile strength, and temperature resistance. Moreover, stainless steel is highly malleable and easy to shape and fabricate.
Titanium
is beneficial in various applications, known for its strength, low density, non-corrosive properties, hypoallergenic nature, and flexibility. It is often used as an alloying agent with different metals and finds applications in the medical industry, such as orthodontic archwires, orthodontic implants, and joint reconstruction.
Shape Memory Alloys
Shape Memory Alloys (SMA) are unique alloys. At low temperatures, SMAs can be easily deformed through the shape memory effect, but they regain their pre-deformed shape when heated. Additionally, SMAs exhibit superelasticity, meaning that they can undergo large deformations and immediately return to their undeformed shape upon removal of external loads.
Ultimate Wireforms specializes in shape memory alloys. Currently, we carry five (5) different NiTi alloys and two (2) Copper NiTi alloys.
ßIII-CNA® Wire
ßIII-CNA® wire provides greater elasticity than stainless steel, and better formability than Nickel Titanium, with stiffness characteristics between NiTi and stainless steel.
Ni-Free
Unique balance of low stiffness, high springback, formability and weldability.
Stainless Steel Solid Bright Wire
Our orthodontic archwires are manufactured from medical grade 304V Stainless Steel material.
Superior surface finish.
Higher force and limited resiliency as compared with ßIII-CNA® wire.
Easy to bend.
A precise heat treatment of solid stainless steel wire produces slightly higher force levels, and approximately 5% greater tensile strength than Stainless Steel Solid Bright wires.
Stainless Steel Multi-strand (Bright) Wire
Ultimate’s three types of multi-strand wires made of medical grade Type 302SS have lower forces and better resiliency than solid Stainless Steel.
3-strand (twisted) wire provides moderate forces and limited flexibility.
Coax (6-strand) wire provides lighter to moderate forces and slightly better resiliency than 3-strand.
8-Braid wire provides the lightest forces of the multi-strand Stainless Steel wires, with relatively good resiliency.
