Help Needed: Shape Retaining Materials

How much are you bending the material? Are you looking for something that will return to shape after a minor deflection, or something that you can fold in half and have it return back to its original shape? Are there any other properties that are required? Thicknesses? Color? Electrical? Temperature?

nitinol and flexinol are two shape memory alloys you may want to look into.

The material I need must start out as a a strip approx. 9" long X approx. 1/2" wide X thickness to be determined. This strip will start out formed at a 90 degree angle bent in the center. Ideally, I should then be able to bend the strip into a straight shape ( 0 Degrees )hold it there for extended periods then, release it and have it return to approx. 90 Degrees. color is not a factor, conductivity is not a factor, temperature range of 20 to 110 degree F would be sufficient. please contact me if you require additional information. Thanks.

There should be as much attention paid to the design as the material used. Just about any material has some resilience, some more than others. The key to designing an object that will return to its original shape is to design it so that the expected conditions of deformation will not overstress any part over it's natural resilience. Without further information, I'll leave the figuring to you.

Dynalloy (www.dynalloy.com) have a range of shape memory nickel/titanium components that reduce their length under electrical stimuli......This any help?