3M Unitek Prestige Hollow Chop Pliers, Nitinol
A wide beaked plier with convex and concave surfaces ideal for reshaping and contouring Nitinol archwires, rated up to 0.021 by 0.025 inches.
61 millimetres across, specifically shaped for reshaping and contouring nitinol wire and full archwires rather than making sharp, defined bends the way a narrower beaked plier would. Nitinol wire behaves differently from stainless steel because of its shape memory and superelastic properties, so instruments used to reshape it need a broad, controlled contact surface that gradually reforms the wire's curve without kinking or damaging its structure, which is exactly what the hollow chop design is intended to provide.
020 inches in round diameter, covering many of the mid to larger gauge nitinol wires commonly used through the middle stages of treatment. Practices working with nitinol archwires, including preformed arches that occasionally need minor reshaping to fit an individual patient's arch form, rely on a plier like this rather than a standard bending plier, which would be more likely to create a permanent kink in a superelastic wire.
This is a specialised instrument for offices doing regular wire adjustment work.
