Medical device with porous surface and method for producing same
AssigneeVertera, Inc.
InventorsWei-Hsiang Chang, Stephen Lee Laffoon, Christopher S. D. Lee, David Lee Safranski
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Abstract
A method for making a polymer with a porous layer from a solid piece of polymer is disclosed. In various embodiments, the method includes heating a surface of a solid piece of polymer to a processing temperature below a melting point of the polymer and holding the processing temperature while displacing a porogen layer through the surface of the polymer to create a matrix layer of the solid polymer body comprising the polymer and the porogen layer. In at least one embodiment, the method also includes removing at least a portion of the layer of porogen from the matrix layer to create a porous layer of the solid piece of polymer.
Claims5
A method comprising the steps of:
- heating a surface of a solid polyetheretherketone (PEEK) body to a maximum processing temperature that is below a melting temperature of the surface of the solid PEEK body by a melting temperature differential;
- displacing a plurality of layers of a porogen through the surface and into a defined distance of the solid PEEK body, creating, thereby, a matrix layer including PEEK and the plurality of layers of the porogen, the matrix layer being integrally connected with the solid PEEK body;
- maintaining throughout the heating and displacing steps, a temperature of the surface of the solid PEEK body that is below the melting temperature by at least the melting temperature differential;
- and
- removing a portion of the plurality of layers of porogen from the matrix layer, creating, thereby, a porous PEEK layer integrally connected with a remaining portion of the solid PEEK body, wherein the melting temperature differential is between one degree Celsius and thirty-eight degrees Celsius.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.