Theoretical and experimental study of a circular imprint process for fabricating polylactide stents

Abstract

This study presents the concept for a circular imprint process for polylactide (PLA) stent fabrication that can reduce processing time and costs compared to traditional processes. The properties of PLA were measured for the theoretical simulation of the PLA stent firstly. Two proposed simulation models were built to predict the filling rate of the PLA material in the circular imprint process by the finite volume method (FVM) and to comprehend the compressibility of the PLA stent using the finite element method (FEM). A specially designed circular mold and imprint system are employed to imprint the stent structure. Experimental results show a similar trend to the theoretical results for the circular imprint process under varying conditions. Moreover, a filling rate of up to 98.3% can be achieved, and the PLA stent, which had good material properties and compressibility, was fabricated successfully using the circular imprint system.