An improved heat engine employing a dual-component working fluid and configured to generate internal heat from one component of the working fluid that heats the other component through the physical contact between them such that together with the addition of external heat, the engine advantageously yields enhanced work extraction efficiency through separate, parallel expansion of each of the working fluids.

A dual-cycle heat engine employing a first cycling working fluid and a second cycling working fluid whose cycles overlap when fused into a combined working stream so as to preserve compression heat generated during compression of the first working fluid thereby yielding enhanced work extraction when complying with additional thermodynamic requirements.

Multi-stable SMA actuator comprising two shape memory alloy wires (1, 2) in antagonistic configuration that allow to define multiple stable positions of a movable element (12), said positions being maintained by movable stoppers to lock the movable element, that do not require power and are disengaged by the shape memory alloy wires (1, 2) upon actuation thereof.

This invention relates to an operational element and a method for manufacturing the operational element that comprises magnetic shape memory alloy. in the method at least a part of the magnetic shape memory alloy is arranged as an active region that is responsive to a magnetic field and at least one other part of the magnetic shape memory alloy is arranged as an inactive region that is unresponsive to a magnetic field.

An improved heat engine employing a dual-component working fluid and configured to generate internal heat from one component of the working fluid that heats the other component through the physical contact between them such that together with the addition of external heat, the engine advantageously yields enhanced work extraction efficiency through separate, parallel expansion of each of the working fluids.

An actuator for adjusting an element to be moved in a beam path of an optical arrangement contains the element to be moved, a carrier and at least one SM element, the SM element being connected to the element to be moved and designed such that it is supported on the carrier, so that when the dimension of the SM element changes, a directed force effect is produced between the element to be moved and the carrier.

A system may include an actuation member having a first end and a second end. A length of the actuation member is greater than a width of the actuation member. The length extends from the first end to the second end along a longitudinal axis when the actuation member is undeformed. The actuation member may include a magnetic shape memory alloy. The system may further include an anchor retaining the first end of the actuation member. The second end of the actuation member may be free to move laterally to the longitudinal axis in response to a deformation of the actuation member. The system may also include a magnetic field source in proximity to the actuation member. The magnetic field source may be configurable to alter a magnetic field applied to the actuation member to adjust the extent of deformation of the actuation member.

A dual-cycle heat engine employing a first cycling working fluid and a second cycling working fluid whose cycles overlap when fused into a combined working stream so as to preserve compression heat generated during compression of the first working fluid thereby yielding enhanced work extraction when complying with additional thermodynamic requirements.

The invention relates to a transport device (100) comprising a housing (110), an actuator (130), a drive (150) and a sealing element (170). The housing has a fluid inlet (111, 113), a fluid outlet (113, 111), and partially contains the actuator (130), which comprises a magnetic shape-memory alloy. The actuator (130) can be deformed by the drive (150) in such a way to form a cavity (135) for the fluid in order to transport the fluid in the cavity (135) from the fluid inlet (111, 113) to the fluid outlet (113, 111). The sealing element (170) is arranged between the actuator (130) and the housing (110) in such a way that the cavity (135) is edge-sealed or end-sealed during the transport of the fluid from the fluid inlet (111, 113) to the fluid outlet (113, 111).

A transport device (400) comprises a housing (410), an actuator (430), a drive (450) and a sealing element (470). The housing has a fluid inlet (411, 413) and a fluid outlet (413, 411). The actuator (430) comprises a magnetic shape-memory alloy, and the actuator (430) is arranged at least in sections in the housing (410). The actuator (430) can be deformed by the drive (450) in such a way that two cavities (635, 635) for the fluid are formed in the actuator (430), which cavities can be moved by the drive (450) in order to transport the fluid in the cavities (635, 635) from the fluid inlet (411, 113) to the fluid outlet (413, 411). The sealing element (470) has at least one recess (471, . . . ), and the sealing element (470) is arranged in the housing (410) in such a way that the cavities (635, 635) are at least temporally in fluid communication via the recess (471, . . . ) during the transport of the fluid from the fluid inlet (411, 413) to the fluid outlet (413, 411).