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US 7,115,179 B2Granted
Post-weld necking of welded plastic joints
AssigneeMedtronic Vascular, Inc.
InventorsDonagh O'Shaughnessy, Alan O'Driscoll
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Abstract
The invention relates to a method of increasing flexibility of joints between areas of plastic materials, and in particular the joint between a catheter shaft and a balloon neck involving welding the overlapping portions to create a joint region and applying a tensile force to the joint region, the force being of sufficient strength to elongate the joint region, thus thinning the joint region.
Claims10
A process for forming a joint between a polymeric balloon and a polymeric catheter shaft comprising the following steps in order:
- assembling the balloon on the shaft such that a balloon neck area overlaps the shaft;
- welding the neck area to the shaft to create a joint;
- and
- applying a tensile force to the joint, the force being sufficient to elongate the joint, thus thinning the joint.
1 more element
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.