pps proceeding - Abstract Preview
pps proceeding
Symposium: S06 - Biopolymers and Polymer from Renewable Resources
Oral Presentation
 
 

Mechanical Properties of PLA/PCL blend extruded tubes for the bioresorbable stent application

Bhati Pooja (1)*, Bhatnagar Naresh (1)

(1) Department of Mechanical Engineering, Indian Institute of technology Delhi - New Delhi - India

Significant studies are being done on the use of the poly lactic acid (PLA)/poly caprolactone (PCL) as a potential material for Bioresorbable stents manufacturing. Among the various manufacturing processes used for the polymeric stent manufacturing, the prevailing method is to extrude the tube and then subject it to post processing operations for enhancing its mechanical properties, so as to make it a better candidate for the stent. Subsequently, stent profile cutting by cold laser is required for changing the tube into a stent. The variation in manufacturing process employed for tube extrusion is an area not adequately reported. This study gives the insight into the effect of the manufacturing process variation on the mechanical properties of biodegradable PLA and PLA/PCL blend tubes. In this study the fabrication process of the tube is modified so that the post processing of the tubes can be eliminated. The tubes were extruded by three different ways 1). Simple Extrusion (SE), 2). Biaxial Expansion(BE) during extrusion 3). Delayed Crystallization (DC). Simply extruded tubes and delayed crystallized tubes exhibit lower tensile modulus and tensile strength as compared to biaxially expanded tubes for identical wall thickness and tube diameter. Also it was found that the tubes of PLA/PCL blend containing 8wt.% PCL have better tensile properties as compared to PLA/PC blend with 5wt% PCL, even though incorporation of PCL increases ductility. Further, burst strength of the simple extruded tubes and biaxially expanded tubes are compared and reported in this study