Balloon cones and waists thinning methodology
AssigneeSciMed Life Systems, Inc.
InventorsDaniel Keith Tomaschko, Daniel James Horn, Xiao Kang Zhang, Nao Pao Lee
Life of this patent
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Abstract
Medical balloons and balloon preforms are made by methods which include the step of selectively removing material from the proximal and/or distal ends of a segment. In the case of a thermoplastic material characterized by one or more glass transition temperatures, the segment may optionally be maintained at a temperature below the glass transition temperature of the segment during the material removal step.
Claims27
A method comprising the steps of:
- providing a segment of thermoplastic material tubing having a predetermined wall thickness and length, the segment having a proximal end portion, a distal end portion and a center portion;
- removing material from a portion of at least one of the distal and proximal end portions of the segment to a desired reduced thickness while maintaining the temperature of substantially all of the segment below about the glass transition temperature of the thermoplastic material or below the highest glass transition temperature of the thermoplastic material if the material is a block copolymer so as to form a medical balloon preform.
A method comprising the steps of:
- providing a segment of thermoplastic material having a predetermined wall thickness and length, the segment having a proximal end portion, a distal end portion and a center portion;
- removing material from at least one portion of the proximal end and distal end portions of the segment to a desired reduced thickness;
- drawing the segment to a predetermined length;
- and
- expanding the segment in a mold to produce a medical balloon, the medical balloon having a proximal waist portion, a proximal cone portion, a body portion, a distal cone portion and a distal waist portion, wherein the center portion of said segment becomes the medical balloon body portion.
A medical balloon preform made by a method comprising the steps of:
- providing a segment of thermoplastic material having a predetermined wall thickness and length, the segment having a proximal end portion, a distal end portion and a center portion, the center portion having a temperature;
- removing material from at least one end portion from among the proximal end and distal end portions to a desired thickness, the temperature of the center portion of the segment maintained during the removing step below the glass transition temperature of the thermoplastic material or below the highest glass transition temperature of the thermoplastic material if the material is a block copolymer.
A method comprising the steps:
- providing a segment of tubing having a predetermined wall thickness and length, the segment having a proximal end portion, a distal end portion and a center potion;
- removing material from a portion of at least one of the distal and proximal end portions of the segment to a desired reduced thickness so as to form a balloon preform;
- and
- forming a medical balloon from the preform, the medical balloon having a proximal waist portion, a proximal cone portion, a body portion, a distal cone portion and a distal waist portion.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.