An application example from medical technology

However, after mechanical production — usually by laser cutting, fine wire or milling — the stents show Microburrs, cutting edges and processing marks on. These defects can lead to local stress concentrations, corrosion sites, tissue irritations or even thromboses lead.

Purely mechanical post-processing (e.g. grinding or brushing) is hardly possible due to the delicate structure of the stents. Therefore, a electrochemical process, that electropolishing, used to perfect the surface on a microscopic level.

For the surface treatment of stents, ElpoChem specially developed electrolytes that are optimally tailored to medical materials. With the process ElpoLux TI-Med for titanium alloys or ElpoLux TM-S For stainless steel alloys, the implants are electrochemically treated in such a way that even the smallest roughnesses and processing marks are leveled out. This gives the surface uniform smoothness, is free of burrs and has no potential sources of particles. At the same time, a homogeneous, stable passive layer is produced, which significantly increases the corrosion protection of the material. The stents treated in this way show significantly improved biocompatibility, as the metallically pure and burr-free surface minimizes the risk of tissue irritation. This creates a quality advantage that is decisive in the competition in medical technology.

Benefits

- Uniform, smooth metal surface leveled in micro-roughness
- Improved corrosion resistance
- Increased biocompatibility, reduced risk of rejection and thrombosis