Additive Manufacturing Implantable Device Housing
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current manufacturing methods for implantable medical device housings, such as stamping and superplastic forming, are limited in producing housing portions with integrated features and separate cavities, leading to increased size, weight, and assembly complexity, as well as higher costs and inventory requirements.
Innovation Solution
The use of additive manufacturing processes like metal injection molding, direct metal laser sintering, or three-dimensional printing to form metal housing portions with integrated features, allowing for the direct integration of components like batteries and capacitors within the housing, reducing the need for separate components and assembly steps, and enabling hermetic sealing.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of manufacture
If stamping or superplastic forming is used to manufacture housing portions, then the housing can be produced with uniform wall thickness, but separate cavities and features cannot be integrated into the housing portion, requiring additional separate components and assembly steps
Solution Approach 1:
The patent integrates multiple housing features including cavities, recesses, and mounting structures directly into the housing portion through additive manufacturing, merging what would traditionally be separate components into a single integrated structure. This eliminates the need for separate battery housings, capacitor housings, and other component enclosures that would otherwise require individual assembly steps.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent divides the housing into multiple portions (first housing portion, second housing portion) that can be manufactured separately using additive manufacturing and then assembled through hermetic sealing. This segmentation allows each portion to be optimized for specific functions while maintaining the ability to integrate complex features within each portion that would be impossible with traditional stamping or superplastic forming.
2Ease of manufacture
If traditional manufacturing methods are used, then production processes are well-established, but the device size and weight increase due to the need for separate components and housings
Solution Approach 1:
The patent combines multiple housing functions into a single integrated housing structure manufactured via additive manufacturing. By integrating battery cavities, capacitor recesses, and structural features into one component rather than using separate housings for each, the overall device weight is reduced while maintaining manufacturing feasibility through modern additive processes.
3Productivity
If stamping is used to form housing portions, then production speed is relatively fast, but it requires two housing portions to be formed and joined together, and cannot produce integrated cavities or features
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments the housing into multiple portions that can be manufactured using high-speed additive manufacturing processes and then quickly assembled through hermetic sealing. This segmentation strategy maintains productivity by allowing parallel manufacturing of different housing portions while enabling the integration of complex features within each portion that would be impossible with traditional stamping.
4Shape
If superplastic forming is used to produce housing components, then complex shapes can be achieved, but the process is very slow and has significantly more variation in dimensions of part features
Solution Approach 1:
The patent divides the complex housing structure into multiple portions that can be manufactured using additive manufacturing. This segmentation allows each portion to be produced with consistent dimensional accuracy through controlled additive processes, avoiding the significant dimensional variation associated with superplastic forming while maintaining the ability to achieve complex three-dimensional shapes.
5Reliability
If separate battery and capacitor assemblies are used, then component reliability is maintained, but inventory requirements and costs increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent integrates battery and capacitor housings into a single unified housing structure manufactured via additive manufacturing. This merging eliminates the need to maintain separate inventories of battery housings, capacitor housings, and other component enclosures, reducing inventory requirements and costs while maintaining the reliability of each energy storage component through proper hermetic sealing and isolation.
Data Source
Figure 1
Figure 2a
Figure 2b
AI summary
On aspect is a housing for an implantable medical device, including a first portion of metal and having integrated features and a second portion also of metal. The first and second portions are sealed together thereby forming the housing with an internal space that is within first and second portions and that fully contains the features such that they are hermetically sealed relative to an external space outside the housing.