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The manufacturing flexibility resulting from the two-dimensional nature of our strut-formation process facilitates the choice between two alternative strut-formation technologies – photo-etching and water jet laser cutting.
Photo-etching is a technology adopted from the integrated-circuits industry. Using this technology the stent design is projected onto the flat panel, which then undergoes a chemical etching process removing all areas which have not been projected. This process is optimal for stainless steel stents.
Water-jet Laser cutting is a widely used strut-formation process, in which a laser simply cuts out the redundant parts of the sheet, leaving only the desired design. This process is optimal for cobalt chromium and nitinol stents since both are heat sensitive and the water jet laser cutting technology dramatically reduces material deformation.
Furthermore, the accuracy achieved by this technology compared to the alternative of laser cutting a tube, increases considerably when applied to a flat panel.
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