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US 7,731,890 B2Granted
Methods of fabricating stents with enhanced fracture toughness
AssigneeAdvanced Cardiovascular Systems, Inc.
InventorsDavid C. Gale, Bin Huang, Timothy A. Limon, Vincent J. Gueriguian
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Abstract
Stents and methods of manufacturing a stents with enhanced fracture toughness are disclosed.
Claims14
A method for fabricating a stent comprising:
- conveying a gas into a poly(L-lactide) tube disposed within a cylindrical mold to increase a pressure inside the tube, wherein the increased pressure radially expands the polymeric tube to conform to the inside surface of the mold;
- applying tension along the axis of the tube to axially extend the tube;
- and
- fabricating a stent from the radially expanded and axially extended tube, including the steps of forming cylindrical rings, each of which comprising a plurality of diamond shaped cells interconnected to each other about the stent circumference, wherein each cell is formed by a pair of opposed bar arms defining a bending element arranged to extend substantially along the circumferential direction of the stent so that the smallest angle separating the bar arms of one of the bending elements is greater than about 90°,whereby the bending elements are defined as areas exhibiting the highest stress concentration of a diamond shaped cell when the stent is radially loaded.
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A method for fabricating a stent comprising:
- processing a polymer form including increasing the Tg of the polymer at least to about 10° C.;
- and
- fabricating a stent from the processed form, including the step of
- forming a plurality of cells, each of the cells having opposed ends separated by a circumferential distance with a pair of opposed bending elements extending there between to form the cell,
- wherein each of the cells are joined to each other at their respective ends to form a cylindrical ring of cells.
2 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.