THERMOMECHANICAL PROPERTIES OF SHAPE-MEMORY POLYMERS OF POLYURETHANE SERIES AND THEIR APPLICATIONS

Shape memory polymers of polyurethane series have been developed. Thes e polymers have the following features. (1) They can be molded easily similar to conventional plastics, (2) their shape recovery temperature can be set arbitrarily, and (3) they can be colored as required becau se they are transparent, making a wide range of applications possible. In this paper, the basic characteristics of the stress-strain-tempera ture-time relationship of shape memory polymers of the polyurethane se ries are investigated experimentally, and several applications of thes e polymers are introduced.