Method of forming a textile member with undulating wire

• US 6,192,944 B1
• Filed: 04/24/2000
• Issued: 02/27/2001
• Est. Priority Date: 08/14/1998
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: SECANT MEDICAL, LLC (Compagnie Generale DES Etablissements Michelin SCA)
• Original Assignee: Prodesco, Inc. (Compagnie Generale DES Etablissements Michelin SCA)
• Inventors: Greenhalgh, E. Skott
• Primary Examiner(s): FALIK, ANDREW M
• Application Number:
  US09/558,243
• Time in Patent Office: 309 Days
• Field of Search: 139/425.R, 139/34, 623/1.51, 623/1.5
• US Class Current: 139/425.00R
• CPC Class Codes: A61F 2/07 Stent-grafts
• CPC Class Codes: A61F 2/89 the wire-like elements comprising two or more adjacent rings flexibly connected by separate members
• CPC Class Codes: A61F 2/90 characterised by a net-like or mesh-like structure
• CPC Class Codes: A61F 2002/065 Y-shaped blood vessels
• CPC Class Codes: A61F 2002/075 the stent being loosely attached to the graft material, e.g. by stitching
• CPC Class Codes: A61F 2250/0039 differing in diameter
• CPC Class Codes: D03D 11/02 Fabrics formed with pockets, tubes, loops, folds, tucks or flaps fabrics consisting of a single tube D03D3/02
• CPC Class Codes: D03D 13/00 Woven fabrics characterised by the special disposition of the warp or weft threads, e.g. with curved weft threads, with discontinuous warp threads, with diagonal warp or weft
• CPC Class Codes: D03J 5/00 Shuttles swivel shuttles D03D31/00; shuttles for smallware looms D03D35/00; circular loom shuttles D03D37/00; selvedge shuttles D03D47/46
• CPC Class Codes: D10B 2401/046 Shape recovering or form memory
• CPC Class Codes: D10B 2509/06 Vascular grafts; stents
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 139/01 Bias fabric digest

Abstract

A method of forming a textile having an undulating wire member therein. The method includes forming a wire which exhibits shape memory behavior into an undulating wire member, training the wire to remember its shape, causing the undulating wire member to straighten by undergoing a shape-memory transformation, securing the straightened wire member in a conventional textile and then causing the straightened wire to undergo a shape memory transformation back to the remembered undulating shape.

Claims

1. A method of forming a textile with an undulating wire member therein, said method comprising the steps of:

(a) forming a wire exhibiting shape memory behavior into an undulating wire member;

(b) training said wire to remember its shape while it is formed into said undulating wire member;

(c) causing said undulating wire member to straighten by undergoing a shape-memory transformation, thereby producing a straightened wire with a memory of an undulating shape;

(d) securing said straightened wire with said memory of said undulating shape into a conventional textile; and

(e) causing said straightened wire to undergo a shape memory transformation back to its remembered undulating shape.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein step (a) comprises:

(a-1) providing a flat mandrel with a first series of pins spaced substantially equiangularly at a first radius with a spacing angle θ and

a second series of pins spaced substantially equiangularly at a second radius with said spacing angle θ

, said first and second series of pins being substantially θ

/2 out of phase; and

(a-2) winding said wire in an interlaced fashion about said pins to produce said undulating wire member.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein step (a) comprises:

(a-1) providing a cylindrical mandrel with a first series of pins spaced substantially equiangularly, with a spacing angle γ

, along a first helical path, and a second series of pins spaced substantially equiangularly, with said spacing and angle γ

, along a second helical path which has an identical helix angle to said first helical path and which is displaced axially a predetermined distance therefrom, said first and second series of pins being substantially γ

/2 out of phase when viewed along an axis of said cylindrical mandrel; and

(a-2) winding said wire in an interlaced fashion about said pins to produce said undulating wire member.