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US 2014/0338214 A1Published application
Removing a solvent from a drug-eluting coating
AssigneeAbbott Cardiovascular Systems Inc.
InventorsCharles R. Bobson, Kurt Scheinpflug, Yung-Ming Chen, Jeff H. Smith
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A coating device for coating a medical device with a drug-eluting material uses an in-process drying station between coats to improve a drug release profile. The drying station includes a heat nozzle configured for applying a uniform drying gas.
Claims11
A drying nozzle having a mean flow direction, an inlet area that receives an incoming gas stream and an exit area that produces a drying gas, comprising:
- a chamber including a first side proximal the inlet and distal the exit, a second side distal the inlet and proximal the exit, and walls extending from the first side to the second side;
- the chamber walls defining an exit region, inlet region and mid-region of the nozzle, the exit region defining a first volume for gas flow from the mid-region to the nozzle exit, and the mid-region defining a second volume for gas flow from the inlet region to the exit region;
- the mid-region formed at least in part by walls that diverge way from each other in the flow direction and the exit region formed at least in part by walls that converge towards each other in the flow direction
- a first diffuser disposed proximal the inlet and distal the exit area, the first diffuser forming a first plurality of openings;
- a second diffuser disposed proximal the exit area and distal the first diffuser area, the second diffuser forming a second plurality of openings and having a cross-sectional area configured to directed gas over the surface of a coated medical device, such that during steady state flow the nozzle produces a gas at the exit that has a substantially uniform velocity and temperature profile across the exit area.
2 more elements
An apparatus for coating a stent, comprising
- a mandrel for holding the stent;
- a sprayer for applying a coating to a surface of the stent while it is being held on the mandrel;
- a dryer configured to remove a controlled percentage of solvent from a surface of the stent, the dryer including a nozzle and the nozzle forming a gas conditioning chamber, the gas conditioning chamber comprising:
- an inlet receiving a heated gas provided from a gas source,
- a diverging section proximal the inlet and distal the exit,
- a converging section proximal the exit and distal the inlet,
- a first diffuser proximal the inlet and distal the exit, the first baffle having a first arrangement of openings, and
- a second diffuser proximal the exit and having a second arrangement of openings,
- wherein the inlet, diverging section, converging section and first and second diffusers cooperate to produce an accelerated, drying gas mass having a uniformly distributed capacity for heat transfer from the gas to the surface of the stent;
- and
- a means for moving the stent and mandrel between the dryer and the sprayer.
8 more elements
10-13. (canceled)
A stent coating method, comprising the steps of:
- (a) applying a coating to the stent, wherein the applied coating is at most a percentage of a total coating weight selected from the set consisting of 0.5% of the total coating weight, 2% of the total coating weight, 5% of the total coating weight and 10% of the total coating weight;
- (b) after applying the percentage of the total coating weight, at least partially drying the stent with a gas forced through a nozzle;
- and
- (c) repeating steps (a) and (b) until the total coating weight is reached.
1 more element
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.