Microminiature patterned metal on flexing interventional surgical substrates
AssigneeProfessional Plating Inc.
InventorCraig A. Ingalls
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A base interventional surgical device which flexes during use (ISDFU) is coated with powder coated epoxy and cured. Selected areas of the maskant are removed by laser ablation using a computer numerically controlled galvo, while holding/moving the part with a CNC robot so laser ablation can be performed on any surface while that surface is oriented normal to the laser beam. A radiopaque metal is deposited onto the exposed selected areas of the ISDFU by electrolytic deposition. After the metal layer spots are deposited, the remainder of the maskant is removed by dissolving in a solvent. The resultant metal layer(s) do not circumscribe any portion of the ISDFU, and thus do not interfere with flexing of the ISDFU nearly as much as prior art radiopaque marker bands would.
Claims18
A method of forming an interventional surgical device which flexes during use (ISDFU), comprising:
- providing a base ISDFU, wherein the base ISDFU is a stent formed of a plurality of nitinol strands and/or beams;
- coating at least a portion of the base ISDFU with a maskant, the maskant being of a different material than the base ISDFU;
- computer numerically controlled (CNC) removing of selected areas of the maskant to expose selected areas of the base ISDFU within the remainder of the maskant;
- depositing a metal layer onto the exposed selected areas of the masked base ISDFU;
- and
- removing the remainder of the maskant while leaving the deposited metal layer intact on the selected areas of the base ISDFU, wherein the deposited metal layer left intact on the selected areas of the base ISDFU does not circumscribe any of the nitinol strands and/or beams.
A method of forming an interventional surgical device which flexes during use (ISDFU), comprising:
- providing a base ISDFU, wherein the base ISDFU is a stent formed of a plurality of strands and/or beams formed of nitinol or stainless steel;
- coating at least a portion of the base ISDFU with a maskant, the maskant being of a different material than the base ISDFU;
- computer numerically controlled (CNC) removing of selected areas of the maskant to expose selected areas of the base ISDFU within the remainder of the maskant, wherein each selected area covers only one side of its strands and/or beams, for a length less than the distance between adjacent intersections of its strands and/or beams;
- depositing a metal layer onto the exposed selected areas of the masked base ISDFU;
- and
- removing the remainder of the maskant while leaving the deposited metal layer intact on the selected areas of the base ISDFU.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.