Nickel-titanium (NiTi) is an attractive alloy due to its unique functional properties (i.e., shape memory effect and superelasticity behaviors), low stiffness, biocompatibility, damping characteristics, and corrosion behavior. It is however a hard task to fabricate NiTi parts because of the high reactivity and high ductility of the alloy which results in difficulties in the processing and machining. These challenges altogether have limited the starting form of NiTi devices to simple geometries including rod, wire, bar, tube, sheet, and strip. In recent years, additive manufacturing (AM) techniques have been implemented for the direct production of complex NiTi such as latticebased and hollow structures with the potential use in aerospace and medical applications. It worth noting that due to the relatively higher cost, AM is considered a supplement technique for the existing. This paper provides a comprehensive review of the publications related to the AM techniques of NiTi while highlighting current challenges and methods of solving them. To this end, the properties of conventionally fabricated NiTi are compared with those of AM fabricated alloys. The critical steps toward a successful manufacturing such as powder preparation, optimum laser parameters, and fabrication chamber conditions are explained. The microstructural characteristics and structural defects, the influencing factors on the transformation temperatures, and functional properties of NiTi are highlighted to provide and overview of the influencing factors and possible controlling methods. The mechanical properties such as hardness and wear resistance, compressive behaviors, fatigue characteristics, damping and shock absorption properties are also reported. A case study in the form of using AM as a promising technique to fabricate engineered porous NiTi for the purpose of creating a building block for medical applications is introduced. The paper concludes with a section that summarizes the main findings from the literature and outlines the trend for future research in the AM processing of NiTi.

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Shape memory alloys (SMAs), such as Nitinol (i.e., NiTi), are of great importance in biomedical and engineering applications due to their unique superelasticity and shape memory properties. In recent years, additive manufacturing (AM) processes have been used to produce complex NiTi components, which provide the ability to tailor microstructure and thus the critical properties of the alloys, such as the superelastic behavior and transformation temperatures (TTs), by selection of processing parameters. In biomedical applications, superelasticity in implants play a critical role since it gives the implants bone-like behavior. In this study, a methodology of improving superelasticity in Ni-rich NiTi components without the need for any kind of post-process heat treatments will be revealed. It will be shown that superelasticity with 5.62% strain recovery and 98% recovery ratio can be observed in Ni-rich NiTi after the sample is processed with 250 W laser power, 1250 mm/s scanning speed, and 80 µm hatch spacing without, any post-process heat treatments. This superelasticity in as-fabricated Ni-rich SLM NiTi was not previously possible in the absence of post-process heat treatments. The findings of this study promise the fast, reliable and inexpensive fabrication of complex shaped superelastic NiTi components for many envisioned applications such as patient-specific biomedical implants.

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