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US 2026/0115792 A1Published application
Method for forming a tube
AssigneeMiRus LLC
InventorNoah Roth
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A medical device that is at least partially formed of a metal material and a method for forming the medical device.
Claims23
A method for forming a medical device from a metal alloy rod;
- said method comprising the steps of:
- a) providing metal alloy powder;
- b. consolidating said metal alloy powder into a rod;
- said step of consolidating includes subjecting said metal alloy powder to an isostatic process that applies a uniform pressure of 400-700 MPa from all sides on said metal powder;
- said step of consolidating occurring in an inert atmosphere, an oxygen reducing atmosphere of hydrogen or an argon and hydrogen mixture, and/or under a vacuum;
- c. sintering said rod of consolidated metal alloy powder to form a rod green part;
- said rod green part has an average density of 0.7-0.95 of a minimum theoretical density;
- said rod green part has an average density of 11-20 gm/cc;
- said consolidated metal alloy powder is sintered at a temperature of 1600-3500° C. to partially or fully fuse said metal alloy powder together to form said rod green part;
- d. subjecting said rod green part to a primary reduction process to reduce said original outer cross-sectional area of said rod green part to a first drawn down cross-sectional area by use of a reducing mechanism;
- said rod green part is drawn down one or more times in said reducing mechanism to a first drawn down cross-sectional area of said rod green part;
- said first drawn down cross-sectional area of said rod green part is no more than 50% of said original outer cross-sectional area of said rod green part;
- e. annealing said rod green part after said rod green part has obtained said first drawn down cross-sectional area;
- said step of annealing includes controlling an atmosphere about said rod green part during said step of annealing so that said rod green part after said step of annealing includes less than about 30 ppm nitrogen, less than about 150 ppm carbon, and less than about 100 ppm oxygen and a carbon to oxygen atomic ratio of at least about 0.2:1;
- an annealing temperature during said step of annealing is greater than 1200° C.;
- f. subjecting said rod green part to one or more secondary reduction processes to form said metal alloy rod;
- said two or more secondary reduction processes cause a further reduction of said cross-sectional area of said rod green part from said first drawn down cross-sectional area to a second drawn down cross-sectional area by use of said reducing mechanism;
- each of said secondary reduction processes causing a reduction in said cross-sectional area of said rod green part by no more than 25%;
- said rod green part metal is annealed after each secondary reduction process except for a final secondary reduction process;
- after said final secondary reduction process said metal alloy rod is not exposed to a heat treatment process that includes exposing said metal alloy rod a temperature of 500° C. or more;
- and wherein said metal alloy rod after said final secondary reduction process includes less than about 30 ppm nitrogen, less than about 150 ppm carbon, and less than about 100 ppm oxygen and a carbon to oxygen atomic ratio of at least about 0.2:1;
- g. subjecting said metal alloy rod to a gun drilling process and/or an EDM cutting process to form a metal alloy tube from said metal alloy rod;
- and
- h. cutting, etching, grinding, laser cutting, and/or shaving said metal alloy tube to partially or fully form said medical device;
- said medical device is selected from a stent, medical device frame, or hypotube.
22 more elements
A method for forming a medical device from a metal alloy rod;
- said method comprising the steps of:
- a. providing metal alloy powder;
- said metal alloy power has an average particle size of less than 200 mesh;
- a purity of said metal alloy power is at least 90%
- b. consolidating said metal alloy powder into a rod shaped consolidated metal alloy powder;
- said step of consolidating includes subjecting the metal alloy powder to an isostatic process that applies a uniform pressure of 50-700 MPa from all sides on said metal powder;
- said step of consolidating occurs in an inert atmosphere, an oxygen reducing atmosphere of hydrogen or an argon and hydrogen mixture, and/or under a vacuum;
- c. sintering said rod shaped consolidated metal alloy powder to form a rod green part;
- said rod green part has an average density of 0.7-0.95 of a minimum theoretical density;
- said rod green part has an average density of 10-20 gm/cc;
- said consolidated metal alloy rod powder is sintered at a temperature of 1000-3500° C. to partially or fully fuse said metal alloy powder together to form said rod green part;
- d. subjecting said rod green part to a primary reduction process to reduce an original outer cross-sectional area of said rod green part to a first drawn down cross-sectional area by use of a reducing mechanism;
- said first drawn down cross-sectional area is no more than 50% of an original outer cross-sectional area of said rod green part;
- said rod green part includes no more than 30 ppm nitrogen, no more than 150 ppm carbon, and no more than 100 ppm oxygen after said primary reduction process;
- e. annealing said rod green part after said step of subjecting said rod green part to said primary reduction process so as to form a metal alloy rod;
- said step of annealing includes controlling an atmosphere about said rod green part during said step of annealing;
- said metal alloy rod after said step of annealing includes no more than 30 ppm nitrogen, no more than 150 ppm carbon, and no more than 100 ppm oxygen;
- an annealing temperature during said step of annealing is at least 500° C.;
- and
- f. subjecting said metal rod to one or more secondary process steps selected from the group consisting of A) subjecting said metal alloy rod to a gun drilling process and/or an EDM cutting process to form a metal alloy tube from the metal alloy rod;
- B) cutting, etching, grinding, laser cutting, and/or shaving said metal alloy rod or said metal alloy tube to partially or fully form said medical device;
- c) subjecting said metal rod to one or more secondary reduction processes to further reduce an outer cross-sectional area of said metal alloy rod to a drawn down cross-sectional area that is less than said cross-sectional area of said rod green part by said primary drawn down process;
- d) subjecting one or more portions of an outer surface of said metal alloy rod or metal alloy tube to a nitriding process;
- e) coating one or more portions of an outer surface of said metal alloy rod or metal alloy tube with an agent and/or polymer;
- and/or f) coating one or more portions of an outer surface of said metal alloy rod or metal alloy tube with an enhancement coating.
22 more elements
A method for forming a medical device from a metal alloy;
- said method comprising the steps of:
- a) providing metal powder containing one or more metals from the group consisting of calcium, chromium, cobalt, copper, gold, hafnium, iron, lead, magnesium, molybdenum, nickel, niobium, osmium, platinum, rare earth metals, rhenium, silver, tantalum, technetium, titanium, tungsten, vanadium, yttrium, zinc, and zirconium;
- b) mixing said metal powder to provide a homogeneous and uniform mixture of said metal powders at a specific ratio for the intended metal alloy that is to be used to partially or fully form said medical device;
- c) consolidating said homogeneous and uniform mixture of said metal powders into a rod-shaped green part;
- said step of consolidating includes subjecting said homogeneous and uniform mixture of said metal powders to an isostatic process that applies a uniform pressure of 200-1000 MPa from all sides on said homogeneous and uniform mixture of said metal powders to form said rod-shaped green part;
- said rod-shaped green part is a compacted metal powder part having a rod-shape, but said metal powder has not been alloyed and/or sintered, and wherein said rod-shaped green part has low structure integrity;
- d) sintering said rod-shaped green part at a temperature of 1000-3500° C. to fuse together metal powder in said rod-shaped green part to form a semi-dense metal alloy rod having an original cross-sectional area;
- e) subjecting said semi-dense metal alloy rod to a primary reduction process to form a metal alloy rod that has a first drawn-down cross-sectional area that is less than said original outer cross-sectional area of said semi-dense metal alloy rod;
- said primary reduction process occurs at a temperature of 400-1900° C.;
- said semi-dense metal alloy rod is drawn down in cross-sectional area one or more times during said primary reduction process;
- said semi-dense metal alloy rod is continually heated during said one or more times of drawing down during said primary reduction process;
- f) subjecting said semi-dense metal alloy rod to a secondary reduction process to reduce said first drawn-down cross-sectional area to a second drawn-down cross-sectional area;
- said second drawn-down cross-sectional area is less than said first drawn-down cross-sectional area;
- said secondary reduction process occurs at a temperature of 400-1900° C.;
- said metal alloy rod is drawn down in cross-sectional area one or more times during said secondary reduction process;
- said metal alloy rod is continually heated during said one or more times of drawing down during said secondary reduction process;
- g) subjecting said metal alloy rod to a final reduction process to reduce said second drawn-down cross-sectional area to a third drawn-down cross-sectional area;
- said third drawn-down cross-sectional area is less than said second drawn-down cross-sectional area;
- said secondary reduction process occurs at a temperature of less than 400° C.;
- said metal alloy rod after said final reduction process has a density of greater than 90% of a density of a same metal alloy rod that is formed by casting;
- said metal alloy rod after said final reduction process has one or more of i) at least 125 Ksi yield strength, ii) at least 130 Ksi ultimate strength, iii) an elongation of at least 9%, and/or iv) a reduction in cross-sectional area from said original cross-sectional area of at least 40%;
- h) subjecting said metal alloy rod to a gun drilling process and/or an EDM cutting process to form a metal tube from said metal alloy rod;
- and
- i) cutting, etching, grinding, laser cutting, and/or shaving said metal alloy tube to partially or fully form said medical device;
- said medical device is selected from a stent, medical device frame, or hypotube.
22 more elements
A method for forming a medical device from a metal rod;
- said method comprising the steps of:
- a. providing metal powder;
- said metal powder has an average particle size of less than 200 mesh;
- a purity of said metal powder is at least 90%;
- b. consolidating said metal powder to form a rod-shaped green part;
- said step of consolidating includes subjecting the metal powder to an isostatic process that applies a uniform pressure of 50-700 MPa from all sides on said metal powder;
- said step of consolidating occurs in an inert atmosphere, an oxygen reducing atmosphere of hydrogen or an argon and hydrogen mixture, and/or under a vacuum;
- c. sintering said rod-shaped green part form a metal alloy rod;
- said metal alloy rod has said metal alloy rod after said final reduction process has a density of 70-98% of a density of a same metal alloy rod that is formed by casting;
- said metal alloy rod has an average density of 10-20 gm/cc;
- said step of sinter occurs at a temperature of 1000-3500° C. to partially or fully fuse said metal powder together to form said metal alloy rod;
- d. subjecting said rod-shaped green part to a primary reduction process to reduce an original outer cross-sectional area of said rod-shaped green part to a first drawn down cross-sectional area by use of a reducing mechanism;
- said first drawn down cross-sectional area is no more than 50% of an original outer cross-sectional area of said rod-shaped green part;
- said metal alloy rod includes no more than 30 ppm nitrogen, no more than 150 ppm carbon, and no more than 100 ppm oxygen after said primary reduction process;
- e. annealing said metal alloy rod after said primary reduction process;
- said step of annealing includes controlling an atmosphere about said rod-shaped green part during said step of annealing;
- said metal alloy rod after said step of annealing includes no more than 30 ppm nitrogen, no more than 150 ppm carbon, and no more than 100 ppm oxygen;
- an annealing temperature during said step of annealing is at least 500° C.;
- and
- f. subjecting said metal rod to one or more secondary process steps selected from the group consisting of A) subjecting said metal alloy rod to a gun drilling process and/or an EDM cutting process to form a metal alloy tube from the metal alloy rod;
- B) cutting, etching, grinding, laser cutting, and/or shaving said metal alloy rod or said metal alloy tube to partially or fully form said medical device;
- c) subjecting said metal rod to a secondary reduction process and/or a final reduction process to reduce said cross-sectional area of said metal alloy rod to less than said first drawn down cross-sectional area;
- d) subjecting one or more portions of an outer surface of said metal alloy rod or metal alloy tube to a nitriding process;
- e) coating one or more portions of an outer surface of said metal alloy rod or metal alloy tube with an agent and/or polymer;
- and/or f) coating one or more portions of an outer surface of said metal alloy rod or metal alloy tube with an enhancement coating.
22 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.