Hybrid Guidewire Joint with Interlocking Serrations
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Solution Overview
Problem
Guidewire devices face challenges in balancing torquability and flexibility, particularly in navigating tortuous vasculature paths, as existing materials and joints often result in stiffness discontinuities and fragile connections when combining materials with different properties.
Innovation Solution
A hybrid guidewire device with a mechanically interlocking joint between a stainless steel proximal section and a superelastic nitinol distal section, featuring tapered serrations and a surrounding tube structure to stabilize the joint, allowing for effective torque transmission and flexibility, while minimizing stiffness discontinuities.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Adaptability or versatility
If a guidewire uses a single material throughout, then manufacturing is simple, but it cannot simultaneously achieve both high torquability and high flexibility in different sections
Solution Approach 1:
The guidewire core is divided into multiple sections with different material properties - a proximal section with higher torquability and a distal section with higher flexibility. This segmentation allows each section to be optimized for its specific function while maintaining overall device performance.
Solution Approach 2:
The guidewire employs composite construction by combining different materials in a single device - typically a stiffer material (such as stainless steel or cobalt-chromium alloy) for the proximal section and a more flexible material (such as nitinol) for the distal section, creating a multi-material system that achieves both torquability and flexibility.
2Adaptability or versatility
If a guidewire combines materials with different properties to achieve both torquability and flexibility, then navigation capability improves, but joint reliability and structural integrity deteriorate
Solution Approach 1:
The distal section is inserted into and combined with the proximal section to form an integrated joint. This merging of sections creates a unified structure that maintains structural integrity while preserving the different material properties needed for navigation capability.
Solution Approach 2:
The distal section is nested within the proximal section at the joint region, with the distal section inserted into the proximal section. This nested configuration provides mechanical interlocking and structural stability while allowing the different material sections to work together effectively.
3Stability of the object's composition
If a guidewire uses a tapered joint design, then stiffness discontinuities are reduced, but manufacturing precision requirements increase
Solution Approach 1:
The joint region features a tapered geometry that creates a gradual transition in stiffness between the proximal and distal sections. This localized tapering at the joint provides a continuous stiffness profile, reducing abrupt transitions while maintaining overall structural integrity.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
The hybrid guidewire achieves enhanced navigation capabilities by maintaining joint integrity through mechanical interlocks and adhesives, providing a continuous transition of material properties and reducing stiffness discontinuities, thus improving torquability and flexibility.
Implementation Method 1
the amount of frictional surface contact between the guidewire and the vasculature increases
Implementation Method 2
The joint includes or is formed by mechanically interlocking the distal end of the proximal section with the proximal end of the distal section
Implementation Method 3
the distal section is made of or includes a superelastic material such as nitinol
Data Source
Figure 1
Figure 2A
Figure 2B~3
AI summary
The present disclosure relates to core-wire joints for micro-fabricated medical devices, such as guidewires. A hybrid guidewire device includes a core (102) having a joint (105) between a proximal section (110) and a distal section (112) of the core and a tube structure (104) surrounding the joint. The proximal section of the core is made of or includes stainless steel and the distal section is made of or includes a superelastic material such as nitinol. Further, the terminal, distal portion of the proximal section of the core includes serrations (116), and a terminal, proximal portion of the distal section of the core includes complementary serrations (118) sized and shaped to interlock with serrations (116). The distal end of the proximal section mechanically interlocks with a proximal end of the distal section to form the joint.