Additive Manufacturing Stent with Removable Masking Plate
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing methods for manufacturing stents using additive manufacturing are limited by the need to connect most or all crowns of adjacent bands for support, which requires subsequent removal of unwanted connectors, complicating the process and increasing costs.
Innovation Solution
The use of a removable masking plate in additive manufacturing allows for the selective formation of connectors between stent bands, enabling the creation of stents with desired connectivity patterns, where only specific crowns are connected, and the masking plates are later removed without affecting the stent components.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Strength
If connectors are formed between all crowns of adjacent bands by additive manufacturing to provide support, then structural support is improved, but device complexity increases due to the need to subsequently remove unwanted connectors
Solution Approach 1:
The masking plate is applied before the additive manufacturing process to pre-determine which connectors should be formed and which should be removed. This preliminary action eliminates the need for subsequent complex removal operations, as the masking plate itself serves as a template that guides material deposition only where connectors are desired.
Solution Approach 2:
The masking plate is selectively removed after the additive manufacturing process completes. By extracting only the masking plate material (which is designed to be removable through chemical etching, mechanical removal, or other methods), the unwanted connectors are automatically eliminated, leaving only the desired connector pattern in the final device.
2Ease of manufacture
If different materials are used for connectors configured to be removed versus connectors configured to remain, then ease of manufacture is improved through selective removal, but device complexity increases due to material changes during additive manufacturing
Solution Approach 1:
The masking plate is applied locally to specific regions where connectors should not be formed. This localized approach allows the majority of the device to be manufactured from a single material, while only the masked regions require different material properties for removal. The masking plate itself provides the local quality difference needed for selective removal without requiring bulk material changes throughout the entire device.
3Ease of manufacture
If mechanical removal of connectors is performed when connectors to be removed are the same as connectors to remain, then ease of manufacture is maintained, but difficulty of detecting and measuring increases due to identification challenges
Solution Approach 1:
The masking plate can be designed with visual indicators such as color coding, patterns, or markers that clearly distinguish masked regions from unmasked regions. This visual differentiation makes it trivial for the additive manufacturing system to identify where connectors should be formed and where they should be removed, eliminating identification challenges without requiring complex mechanical removal processes.
Data Source
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AI summary
A medical device having a first portion, a second portion, and at least one connector connecting the first and second portion is formed using additive manufacturing. The method includes forming a plurality of layers of a first portion of the medical device, placing a first removable masking plate over the first portion with an opening of the masking plate aligned with a point of the first portion, forming at least one layer of a first connector on the first portion, wherein the first connector is formed in the opening of the removable masking plate, forming a plurality of layers of a second portion of the medical device, wherein a first layer of the plurality of layers of the second portion is formed partially on the first connector and partially on the removable masking plate, and removing the first removable masking plate.