Acme Monaco has a complete line of common and specialty archwires all backed with the same great reliability and craftsmanship.
To help determine your needs here is our glossary of terms:
| A Temperature: | The temperature at which a shape memory alloy starts transforming to Austenite upon heating. |
| Austenitic: | The stronger, higher temperature phase of a Nickel Titanium wire. |
| Biocompatibility: | A general term used to describe the suitability of a particular material which will be exposed to the body or bodily fluid. |
| Canes: | A wireform used to hold orthodontic elastics used for ligating purposes. |
| DSC: | A Differential Scanning Calorimeter which is used to measure the phase transformation temperatures in Nickel Titanium alloys. |
| Etched midline: | A permanent identification mark placed at the centerpoint of an archwire. |
| Extension Spring w/Ends: | Often referred to as Nitinol closed coil springs, Closed coil springs with eyelets. |
| Hooks: | Attachments on archwires for the placement of elastics, headgear, or elastic chains. |
| Hysteresis: | The mechanical energy loss that always occurs under cyclic loading and unloading of a wire, proportional to the area between the loading and unloading load deflection curves within the elastic range of the wire. |
| Ligature: | Typically made of annealed wire, rubber, or a polymer, a tie that is used to secure the archwire in the bracket-slot. |
| Light Force: | A force produced by an appliance element having a light stiffness characteristic. |
| Martensitic NiTi: | A nickel titanium material, often referred to as "heat activated", which has an A transformation temperature that is between room temperature and body temperature. This characteristic gives the wire a "softer" feel at room temperature allowing the orthodontist to engage the wire when it is in a more pliable condition and then the wire will fully transform to the austenitic phase when reaching body temperature. |
| "Nickel-Free" Stainless Steel: | A material alloy offered in archform and straight lengths with a nickel content of 0.1 max. |
| Nickel Titanium: | A material alloy that exhibits shape memory and/or superelastic properties. |
| NiTi: | An abbreviation for Nickel Titanium. |
| Straight Lengths: | Pre-straightened lengths of orthodontic wire normally cut and sold in 14" |
| Superelastic: | A metallic alloy having a relatively substantial elastic range; within a specific range of temperatures. A wire which exhibits "near" constant force within a range of deflection. |
| Tie: | A term used for the fastening of ligatures to brackets or archwires. |
| "T" Springs: | A "Pletcher" type spring. |
| Type 304V Stainless Steel: | A very pure grade of stainless steel where the ingot is melted under a vacuum condition which causes any impurity to burn off. This yields a wire that is free of brittleness, and consistent from lot to lot. |
| Braided: | 8 strand stainless steel wire formed into a rectangular cross-section |
| Coax: | 5 strands of stainless steel wire wrapped around a stainless steel corewire. |
| Twist: | 3 strand of stainless steel wire twisted together. |
| Solid Square and Rectangular: | Solid stainless steel wire with a square or rectangular cross-section. |
| Solid Round: | Solid stainless steel wire with a specific diameter |
