Automated manufacturing of drug-coated balloons for coronary artery disease

Drug-coated balloons were established as an improvement for coronary angioplasty in recent years. However, due to the balloons' high manufacturing variance, coating them evenly is challenging. Therefore, production is still carried out at least partially manually. Within the framework of the presented research project, a four-axis machine kinematics has been developed, enabling even coating of balloon catheters of various sizes in a controlled climate. High-precision measurement using a confocal sensor allows for compensation for the manufacturing variance of the balloon catheter by means of surface mapping. The average coating thickness as well as its distribution can be determined similarly. Thus, in case of insufficient coating, local reapplication can be carried out. With the developed machine system, it is therefore possible to produce coating area densities in the range of 4 μg mm-2 < a < 20μg mm-2 with minimal inhomogeneities.