Balloon cones and waists thinning methodology
AssigneeBoston Scientific Scimed, Inc.
InventorsDaniel Keith Tomaschko, Daniel James Horn, Xiao Kang Zhang, Nao Pao Lee
Life of this patent
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Abstract
Medical balloons and balloon preforms are made by methods which include the step of selectively removing material from the proximal and/or distal ends of a segment. In the case of a thermoplastic material characterized by one or more glass transition temperatures, the segment may optionally be maintained at a temperature below the glass transition temperature of the segment during the material removal step.
Claims32
A method comprising the steps:
- providing a segment of thermoplastic material tubing having a predetermined wall thickness and length, the segment having a proximal end portion, a distal end portion and a center portion;
- removing material from a portion of at least one of the distal and proximal end portions of the segment to a desired reduced thickness while maintaining the temperature of substantially all of the segment below about the glass transition temperature of the thermoplastic material or below the highest glass transition temperature if the material is a block copolymer so as to form a balloon preform.
The method of claim 14 wherein the coolant is selected from the group consisting of water, air, compressed gasses and mixtures thereof.
A method comprising the steps:
- providing a segment of thermoplastic material having a predetermined wall thickness and length, the segment having a proximal end portion, a distal end portion and a center portion;
- removing material from at least one portion of the proximal end and distal end portions of the segment to a desired reduced thickness;
- drawing the segment to a predetermined length;
- and
- expanding the segment in a mold to produce a balloon, the balloon having a body portion, wherein the center portion of said segment becomes the balloon body portion.
A medical balloon preform made by a method comprising the steps:
- providing a segment of material having a predetermined wall thickness and length, the segment having a proximal end portion, a distal end portion and a center portion, the center portion having a temperature;
- removing material from at least one end portion from among the proximal end and distal end portions to a desired thickness.
A medical balloon having:
- a proximal waist portion have a proximal waist wall thickness;
- a proximal cone portion having a proximal cone wall thickness;
- a body portion having a body wall thickness;
- a distal cone portion having a distal cone wall thickness;
- and
- a distal waist portion having a distal waist wall thickness;
- wherein the wall thickness of at least one balloon segment selected from the group consisting of the proximal waist, the proximal cone, the distal cone and the distal waist segments is less than the body wall thickness, the at least one segment having had material removed therefrom by grinding or chemical etching.
A medical balloon which when inflated to a desired pressure has a constant wall thickness over substantially the entire length of the balloon.
A method comprising the steps:
- providing a segment of tubing having a predetermined wall thickness and length, the segment having a proximal end portion, a distal end portion and a center portion;
- removing material from a portion of at least one of the distal and proximal end portions of the segment to a desired reduced thickness so as to form a balloon preform.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.