Medibrane’s innovative covering technologies were developed by our team of engineers following an ongoing journey to better understand medical device’s clinical requirements. Medibrane’s sutureless lamination technology makes it possible to cover stents with fabric by using a repetitive, reliable, cost-effective, and a high yield process. This advanced technology can replace the suturing technique.
Dacron Cover Advantages
Abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA) vascular stents or heart valves are mostly covered by fabric. The advantages of a fabric cover derive from its porous structure that enables both sealing and tissue in-growth to prevent post-deployment migration. Dacron covering is mostly used in structural heart medical devices or stents for blood vessels larger than 10mm, to prevent blood clots.
1 – Layer Sutureless Lamination Technology
One of the disadvantages of fabric covering is the technology most commonly used to implement the fabric onto the stent; suturing. Suturing is a manual, non-automated, time-consuming procedure. Medibrane’s engineers overcame this challenge by developing an innovative technology by which the dacron can be laminated onto the stent without the need for sutures while maintaining strong adhesion. Sutureless lamination of only 1-layer without delamination is enabled by Medibrane’s unique adhesion platform.
Medibrane’s adhesion platform was developed to improve adhesion between the metal stent and the polymeric cover, two materials that do not normally bond together. The adhesion platform activates the surface of the metal and then an encapsulation coating encircles the stent’s struts, thereby generating strong adhesion between the stent and the covering. The adhesion platform creates a strong bond that allows covering with only 1-layer, thus reducing the cover thickness and the crimping profile. Covering stents using sutureless lamination rather than suturing enables the usage of an automated, repetitive, cost-effective, and scalable process. Another advantage of this novel technique is the elimination of the sutures themselves. The sutures themselves increase the cover thickness which could lead to an increased crimping profile.
Sutureless Lamination Technology Advantages:
Low cover thickness
Low crimping profile
Low friction forces during delivery
Automated and scalable process
Faster manufacturing time
Dacron Sutureless Lamination Is Suitable For:
Heart valves
Septal occluders
Abdominal aortic aneurysm’s vascular stents
Left atrial appendage implants
Acute heart failure device
Specification:
Single or double layer (Inner diameter or both inner and outer cover layers)
Wall-thickness range: 30 – 100 [µm]
