Crimping Device Protruding Elements Prevent Soft Layer Damage
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing medical devices, such as stents and prosthetic valves, face challenges in maintaining a soft layer's integrity during crimping, as it can protrude between struts, leading to potential damage and an increased crimped profile, which complicates their delivery and deployment in the body.
Innovation Solution
A crimping device with force-applying surfaces and protruding elements that extend into the openings defined by the device's struts, preventing the soft layer from protruding and minimizing damage during the crimping process, thereby maintaining the device's profile and ensuring smooth delivery.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Length of moving object
If the medical device is compressed to facilitate delivery, then the device can be delivered through smaller catheters, but the soft layer protrudes between struts causing damage and increased crimped profile
Solution Approach 1:
A support member is introduced as an intermediary element during the crimping process. This support member includes protruding elements that extend into the openings defined by the struts, physically preventing the soft layer from protruding between struts while the crimping force is applied. The support member thus mediates between the crimping forces and the soft layer to prevent damage.
Solution Approach 2:
The support member is positioned on the medical device before the crimping process begins. By placing the protruding elements into the openings in advance, the soft layer is pre-positioned and constrained to remain within the strut boundaries during compression, preventing protrusion before it can occur.
2Force
If the soft layer is allowed to protrude between struts during crimping, then the crimping force can be applied more uniformly, but the soft layer sustains damage and the crimped profile increases
Solution Approach 1:
The support member acts as a mediator that distributes the crimping force while simultaneously protecting the soft layer. The protruding elements of the support member contact the soft layer and guide it to remain within the strut openings, ensuring uniform force distribution without causing protrusion-related damage.
Solution Approach 2:
The support member provides protective cushioning to the soft layer before damage can occur. By positioning the protruding elements in advance, they create a physical barrier that cushions and guides the soft layer during compression, preventing it from being forced between struts where damage would occur.
Data Source
AI summary
A crimping device used with a medical device can include at least one force-applying surface configured to compress the medical device by applying a force to a surface of the medical device. The crimping device also includes at least one protruding element extending from the force-applying surface and arranged to least partially extend into one of the openings defined by frame struts while the medical device is being crimped. The extension of the at least one protruding element at least partially into one of the openings prevents at least a portion of the soft layer of the medical device from protruding between struts of the outer frame of the medical device while the device is being crimped.