Materials having superelastic properties including related methods of fabrication and design for medical devices

Abstract

There are super elastic NiTi materials for use as medical components, especially implantable medical components, and methods of fabricating such components to have desired R-phase characteristics in-vivo. Additionally, there are methods of processing a TiNi material to produce an implantable medical component by cold or warm working the TiNi material at least 15%; aging the cold or warm worked TiNi material under stress at between 300-700° C.; and further aging the TiNi material below 300° C. to produce desired R-phase characteristics. Additionally, there are methods of processing a TiNi material to produce a medical component by processing the TiNi material to produce a medical component that has a stress free M*s below a normal body temperature. Additionally, a TiNi material is used to produce a super elastic medical component from a tube, a sheet, a wire or a strip to have a stress free M*s below a normal body temperature.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.