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US 7,217,278 B2Granted
Balloon cones and waists thinning methodology
AssigneeBoston Scientific Scimed, 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.
Claims21
A method comprising the steps of:
- providing a medical balloon at least partially constructed of a thermoplastic material, the medical balloon having a predetermined wall thickness and length, the balloon 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 balloon to a desired reduced thickness while maintaining the temperature of the entire balloon 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.
A method comprising the steps of:
- providing a medical balloon of thermoplastic material having a predetermined wall thickness and length, the balloon 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 balloon to a desired reduced thickness, while maintaining the temperature of substantially all of the balloon below a glass transition temperature of the thermoplastic material, wherein the material is removed by a process selected from the group consisting of grinding chemical etching and any combination thereof.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.