The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Apr. 11, 2000
Filed:
Nov. 01, 1996
Wayne D House, Flagstaff, AZ (US);
Kenneth W Moll, Camp Verde, AZ (US);
Stanislaw L Zukowski, Flagstaff, AZ (US);
W. L. Gore & Associates, Inc., Newark, DE (US);
Abstract
A method of making a seamless, thinwall tube of porous polytetrafluoroethylene. The method involves the use of corresponding male and female dies to deform a precursor sheet of porous PTFE which has been restrained about its perimeter. Preferably the porous PTFE sheet is heated to a temperature of less than the crystalline melt temperature during the tube-forming process. The precursor material is preferably a sheet of porous expanded PTFE and more preferably a multiaxially expanded sheet. This precursor material may optionally have been previously exposed to heat above the melt temperature of PTFE. The inventive tube is as thin or thinner than the precursor sheet.