Method of manufacturing a guidewire with an extrusion jacket
AssigneeSciMed Life Systems, Inc.
InventorsMatthew Solar, Richard Acevedo, Eric Welch, Scott Jones
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A method of manufacturing a guidewire having a discrete length. The method includes the steps of feeding a first end of a corewire into an extrusion device, gripping the first end of the corewire with a gripping apparatus, and extruding a first extrusion material onto an outer surface of the corewire while the gripping apparatus pulls the corewire through the extrusion device to form an extrusion jacket on the outer surface of the corewire. The corewire has a predetermined length corresponding to a length of the guidewire.
Claims49
A method of manufacturing a discrete length guidewire, comprising the steps of:
- feeding a first end of a corewire into an extrusion device, the corewire having a predetermined length corresponding to a length of the guidewire;
- gripping the first end of the corewire with a gripping apparatus;
- and
- extruding a first extrusion material onto an outer surface of the corewire while the gripping apparatus pulls the corewire through the extrusion device to form an extrusion jacket on the outer surface of the corewire.
A method of extruding an extrusion jacket onto a longitudinal element to manufacture a medical device, comprising the steps of:
- feeding a first end of a longitudinal element into an extrusion device, the longitudinal element having a predetermined length corresponding to a length of the medical device;
- gripping the first end of the longitudinal element with a gripping apparatus;
- and
- extruding a first extrusion material onto an outer surface of the longitudinal element while the gripping apparatus pulls the longitudinal element through the extrusion device to form an extrusion jacket on the outer surface of the longitudinal element.
A discrete length corewire to be used in manufacturing a guidewire, comprising:
- a first end section of a substantially constant diameter;
- a tip section having a diameter less than the first end section diameter;
- and
- a second end section of a substantially constant diameter, the second end section diameter being greater than the diameter of the tip section.
An apparatus for manufacturing a discrete length guidewire having an extrusion jacket, comprising:
- a first extruder for supplying a first extrusion material onto an outer surface of a corewire to form an extrusion jacket;
- and
- a gripping apparatus for gripping a portion of the corewire that has passed through the first extruder, said gripping apparatus being capable of imparting a motion on the corewire as the corewire passes through the first extruder, wherein the gripping apparatus is capable of varied movement to change a physical characteristic of the extrusion jacket.
A method of manufacturing a medical device, comprising the steps of:
- feeding a longitudinal element into an extrusion device, the longitudinal element having a predetermined length corresponding to a length of the medical device;
- pulling the longitudinal element through the extrusion device;
- and
- extruding an extrusion material onto an outer surface of the longitudinal element.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.