Methods for making a balloon catheter and for producing an inventory of balloon catheters
AssigneeCook Medical Technologies LLC
InventorDavid Burton
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
Making a balloon catheter includes increasing a temperature of material forming an elongate body positioned within a cavity in an adjustable molding iris, and increasing a fluid pressure within a lumen extending through the elongate body. A segment of the elongate body is plastically deformed in response to the increased fluid pressure, and limited in outward expansion via contacting movable blade members forming the adjustable molding iris.
Claims20
A method of making a balloon catheter comprising the steps of:
- advancing an elongate body into a cavity defined by a plurality of movable blade members forming an adjustable molding iris;
- increasing a temperature of material forming the elongate body so as to soften the material, once positioned within the cavity;
- increasing a fluid pressure within a lumen extending longitudinally through the elongate body;
- plastically deforming a segment of the elongate body formed by the softened material, in response to the increased fluid pressure such that a tubular wall defining the lumen within the segment expands outwardly about a longitudinal axis of the elongate body;
- and
- limiting the outward expansion via contacting the expanded tubular wall with the plurality of movable blade members while the molding iris is held in a fixed state, such that upon hardening of the material the tubular wall forms an inflatable balloon in fluid communication with the lumen in an adjoining segment of the tubular body.
The method of claim 5 wherein the step of increasing fluid pressure further includes increasing gaseous fluid pressure.
A method of producing an inventory of balloon catheters comprising the steps of:
- advancing a first elongate body into a cavity defined by a plurality of movable blade members forming an adjustable molding iris;
- blow molding a first balloon in the first elongate body while the molding iris is held in a first state determining a configuration of the first balloon;
- advancing a second elongate body into the cavity in place of the first elongate body;
- blow molding a balloon in the second elongate body while the molding iris is held in a second state determining a configuration of the second balloon;
- and
- populating the inventory with a first balloon catheter and a second balloon catheter assembled from the first and second elongate bodies, respectively.
A method of making a balloon catheter comprising the steps of:
- moving a plurality of blade members defining a cavity in a molding iris so as to adjust the molding iris from a first state to a second state;
- advancing an elongate body into the cavity;
- increasing a temperature of material forming the elongate body so as to soften the material, once positioned within the cavity;
- increasing a fluid pressure within a lumen extending longitudinally through the elongate body;
- plastically deforming a segment of the elongate body formed by the softened material, in response to the increased fluid pressure, so as to outwardly expand the segment;
- and
- limiting the outward expansion via contacting the segment with the plurality of movable blade members, such that upon hardening of the material the segment forms an inflatable balloon having a configuration determined by the second state of the molding iris and in fluid communication with the lumen in an adjoining segment of the tubular body.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.