Laser Cut Hypotube Wave Pattern for Torque Response
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing guidewires face challenges in achieving optimal flexibility and pushability while maintaining torsional rigidity and steerability, often trading tip flexibility for torque response, which can impact their ability to navigate tortuous vasculature without kinking or unwinding.
Innovation Solution
A flexible hypotube with a laser-cut wave pattern, featuring varying wave cut pitches and angles along its length, designed to enhance flexibility and maintain pushability, allowing for 1:1 torque response without stretching or unwinding, suitable for use in medical devices like guidewires and stent retrievers.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of operation
If spiral cut hypotube is used to increase flexibility, then the guidewire can navigate tortuous vasculature better, but the spiral cut hypotube may wind and unwind during rotation which impacts flexibility and pushability
Solution Approach 1:
The hypotube is segmented through laser cutting into multiple discrete wave-shaped sections rather than a continuous spiral structure. This segmentation prevents the winding and unwinding behavior while maintaining flexibility, as each segment can flex independently without causing rotational instability.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent employs wave-shaped curved patterns instead of spiral configurations. The wave cuts create a sinusoidal curvature pattern that provides flexibility through bending capability while the non-spiral geometry eliminates the wind/unwind phenomenon during torque application.
2Ease of operation
If the guidewire tip is made highly flexible to negotiate difficult turns, then steerability improves, but the guidewire may lack axial stiffness to be advanced by pressure from the proximal end
Solution Approach 1:
The laser cut wave pattern is applied selectively to specific regions of the hypotube, creating localized flexibility zones. The cutting parameters (wave amplitude, frequency, depth) can be varied along the length of the tube to provide different flexibility characteristics in different sections, allowing the tip to be highly flexible while maintaining proximal stiffness for pushability.
Solution Approach 2:
The wave-cut structure provides dynamic mechanical properties that change with bending and compression. Under axial compression, the wave structure engages to provide resistance while allowing controlled deformation, enabling the tube to be both flexible for navigation and pushable for advancement through pressure transmission.
3Length of moving object
If the guidewire diameter is reduced to fit inside catheter lumens, then access to small vessels improves, but the guidewire becomes more prone to breaking loose
Solution Approach 1:
The patent combines the hypotube material with the laser cut wave pattern geometry to create a composite structure. The wave-cut geometry acts as a structural feature that provides enhanced strength-to-diameter ratio, allowing the guidewire to maintain adequate strength while having a reduced outer diameter for catheter compatibility.
Data Source
AI summary
A hypotube having a laser cut wave pattern to improve flexibility. The laser cut wave pattern on the hypotube includes multiple portions that vary the pitch and angle of the cuts. The laser cut wave pattern provides flexibility while maintaining pushability further into the most tortuous vasculature. The laser cut wave pattern also provides the ability to torque the flexible hypotube back and forth, with a 1 to 1 response, without stretching the flexible hypotube. The laser cut hypotube may be used in a number of vascular or neurovascular, such as a guidewire or catheter, or delivery of a stent.