Testing Stent Quality with Prospector v2.pdf - 第2页
Applica tion Not e F ast T es t Setup Another adv antage of the Prospec tor ov er conventional tes ting plat forms is the inter change able cartridge syst em. The syst em does not use fix ed load cells, ins tead a load c…
Testing Stent Quality with Prospector
TM
Application Note
Introduction
Stents are critical medical components that require
extensive mechanical and functional testing before they can
be approved for medical trials. New designs and materials
are constantly being investigated for stent use, and stents
were one of the first commercial scale applications of shape
memory alloys.
Testing stents is challenging. Subtle changes can have a
significant impact on the life of the stent, and the feature
sizes in stents are very small. Most mechanical testing
systems were originally designed to test large components
and sheet material more likely to be found in railways and
ships. However, Nordson’s Material Test technology was
developed from the outset to test micro electronic bond
wires and soldered connections, making them very well
suited to testing items the size of stents.
Micro Scale Visibility
A very common test for stents is a simple tensile test, to
determine the maximum pulling load which it can survive,
however this test is only simple when the component can
be easily aligned and held for testing.
The Prospector system comes with a trinocular scope,
giving the three-dimensional viewing required to align very
small devices. An OmniScope trinocular mounting system
allows the trinocular to be focused on a point anywhere in
the test area, at any angle, with independent movement in
the X, Y and Z axis. A video camera also records tests on a
very small scale.
Figure 1. A stent being pulled with pneumatic jaws on
a Prospector Micro Materials Tester.
Application Note
Fast Test Setup
Another advantage of the Prospector over conventional
testing platforms is the interchangeable cartridge system.
The system does not use fixed load cells, instead a load cell
is incorporated into a cartridge that can feature dierent
heads with tweezers, hooks or compression tips.
The tweezer cartridge can manipulate features as small
as 50 µm in diameter for testing.
Alternatively, wires can be individually pulled using a hook
that can be rotated underneath the test point. This presents
a range of ways that the stents can be tested, depending on
whether the wire strength itself is being tested, the welds,
or how the stent behaves as a structure. The cartridges can
be swapped in under a minute, making the machine
rapidly versatile.
Figure 2. A video capture of a stent test, using the integrated trinocular camera.
Figure 3. The laser welded joints within a
stent require a high magnification scope
to identify the correct wire to pull.
Testing Stent Quality with Prospector
TM
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For more information,
speak with your Nordson
representative or contact
your Nordson regional oice
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United Kingdom
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Testing Stent Quality with Prospector
TM
Application Note
Conclusion
Prospector provides the ideal combination of optics and mechanical testing required
to test the performance of dierent stent designs, as well as a wide range of medical
device scale items.
If you are struggling to grip or even see the critical features on your device,
our test and inspection products are here to help you.
Prospector Micro Materials Tester.
Figure 4. Force vs. Test Time Measurement.
Quadra X-ray Inspection provides high magnification 2D
and 3D images of medical devices, non-destructively.
3 3.2 3.4 3.6 3.8
Time (s)
Force (Kgf)
0.18
0.16
0.14
0.12
0.1
0.08
0.06
0.04
0.02