Peelable Catheter Tip and Body Using Interfacial Bonding
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing catheters and sheaths with splittable and radiopaque tubular bodies are expensive and labor-intensive to manufacture due to the use of precious heavy metals and complex processes, and they often suffer from material incompatibility issues leading to mechanical weakness.
Innovation Solution
A splittable tubular body design featuring interfacial bonding between strips of different materials, where one strip is loaded with radiopaque fillers and the other is not, creating a stress concentration that facilitates peeling without the need for a peeling groove, and a soft atraumatic tip with aligned peel mechanisms for easy attachment and removal.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If precious heavy metals are used to form radiopaque distal bands, then radiopacity is achieved, but manufacturing cost increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent replaces expensive precious heavy metals with radiopaque fillers embedded in a polymeric matrix, creating a cost-effective radiopaque tip that achieves the same imaging function without the high material costs of traditional metal bands
Solution Approach 2:
The patent uses composite materials consisting of radiopaque fillers dispersed in a polymeric matrix to create the radiopaque distal tip, combining the radiopacity function with polymeric material advantages such as ease of manufacturing and chemical compatibility
2Ease of operation
If peeling grooves are provided in prior art tubular bodies, then splittability is achieved, but manufacturing complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent extracts the peeling function from the structural design (peeling grooves) and implements it through material property differences at the interface between strips, eliminating the need for complex groove formation processes while maintaining splittability
Solution Approach 2:
The patent changes the material composition parameter at the interface between strips, creating regions with different material properties that facilitate spontaneous peeling along the interface without requiring physical grooves or cuts
3Reliability
If precious heavy metals are used for radiopaque bands, then radiopacity is achieved, but manufacturing labor intensity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent merges the radiopaque filler incorporation with the polymer extrusion process, allowing both the structural polymer and radiopaque fillers to be formed simultaneously in a single manufacturing step, eliminating separate labor-intensive metal band embedding operations
4Reliability
If polymeric materials with different chemical compatibility are used for strips, then material separation is prevented, but manufacturing cost increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent uses the same base polymeric material for both strips to ensure chemical compatibility and strong adhesion at the interface, while achieving material differentiation through varying filler content rather than using chemically incompatible polymers
Data Source
AI summary
A method of manufacturing a splittable/peelable tubular body of a catheter or sheath wherein the tubular body has a splittable/peelable atraumatic tip is disclosed. The atraumatic tip is generally softer than the tubular body. The tubular body and atraumatic tip each comprise a peel mechanism longitudinally extending along their respective lengths. The peel mechanisms are formed by longitudinally extending regions of interfacial bonding between first and second longitudinally extending strips of polymer material. Each strip forms at least a portion of an outer circumferential surface of the tubular body and atraumatic tip. A region of stress concentration extends along the region of interfacial bonding. The stress concentration facilitates the splitting of the tubular body and atraumatic tip along their respective peel mechanisms.