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AssigneeW.L. Gore & Associates, Inc.
InventorLarry J. Kovach
Estimating the term…
Articles made of a porous material having a fibrillar microstructure of bent fibrils and provided with a fracturable coating whereby the physical size of the article may be changed by the application of force to the article in a direction substantially parallel to a direction of orientation of the fibrils. The application of a tensile force to such an article in a direction substantially parallel to orientation of the bent fibrils results in fracturing of the fracturable material and straightening of the bent fibrils. Methods of making such articles are also described. The articles may include implantable articles such as vascular grafts and stent-grafts; such devices may, for example, be forcibly increased in diameter or in length wherein the force results in fracturing of the coating. One such coated material is porous expanded polytetrafluoroethylene provided with a coating of fluorinated ethylene propylene.
An implantable article comprising a first material having a microstructure of fibrils wherein a substantial portion of said fibrils are in a substantially bent configuration and wherein a substantial portion of said bent fibrils are constrained in the substantially bent configuration by a fracturable material that is different from the first material, wherein said article is adapted to be extended during normal use of said article in at least one dimension by a tensile force applied in a direction to cause fracturing of the fracturable material and straightening of the bent fibrils.
An implantable material comprising a first material having a microstructure including a multiplicity of fibrils and having an average fibril length, wherein at least a portion of said fibrils are length constrained by a second material that is not the same material as the first material, and wherein during normal use of the article, upon the application of a force to the article in a direction that is substantially parallel to the length of the fibrils, said average fibril length is significantly increased and remains significantly increased following removal of the force.
A method of making an extensible implantable article comprising:
An implantable material comprising a microstructure of nodes interconnected by fibrils, said nodes having a first direction of orientation and said fibrils having a second direction of orientation different from the first direction of orientation, wherein at least 40% of said nodes appear under magnification to be substantially bent.
A method of making an implantable material comprising a microstructure of nodes interconnected by fibrils, said nodes having a first direction of orientation and said fibrils having a second direction of orientation different from the first direction of orientation, wherein at least 40% of said nodes appear under magnification to be substantially bent, said method comprising the application of compression to the material in the first direction.
A method of making a tube having bent nodes comprising:
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.