Research & Development World

  • R&D World Home
  • Topics
    • Aerospace
    • Automotive
    • Biotech
    • Careers
    • Chemistry
    • Environment
    • Energy
    • Life Science
    • Material Science
    • R&D Management
    • Physics
  • Technology
    • 3D Printing
    • A.I./Robotics
    • Software
    • Battery Technology
    • Controlled Environments
      • Cleanrooms
      • Graphene
      • Lasers
      • Regulations/Standards
      • Sensors
    • Imaging
    • Nanotechnology
    • Scientific Computing
      • Big Data
      • HPC/Supercomputing
      • Informatics
      • Security
    • Semiconductors
  • R&D Market Pulse
  • R&D 100
    • Call for Nominations: The 2025 R&D 100 Awards
    • R&D 100 Awards Event
    • R&D 100 Submissions
    • Winner Archive
    • Explore the 2024 R&D 100 award winners and finalists
  • Resources
    • Research Reports
    • Digital Issues
    • R&D Index
    • Subscribe
    • Video
    • Webinars
  • Global Funding Forecast
  • Top Labs
  • Advertise
  • SUBSCRIBE

New alloy for stents is more flexible, X-ray visible

By R&D Editors | August 4, 2011

A new alloy developed by a team of researchers, including metallurgists at the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL), is helping cardiologists and their patients at home and abroad. The novel platinum-chromium (PtCr) alloy is being used by Boston Scientific Corporation (Natick, Mass.) to manufacture coronary stents that are more flexible and conformable than existing stents, and more visible on x-ray. The result: easier placement by the doctor and more safety for the patient.

A coronary stent is a small, expandable mesh tube that is placed in a narrowed or weakened coronary artery, allowing the passageway to stay open. Every year coronary stents save thousands of lives by expanding diseased arteries and allowing blood to flow freely.

A stent is typically inserted into an opening in the artery near the patient’s groin, and gently maneuvered through the artery until it reaches the site where blood flow is restricted. Once in place, a balloon inside the tubular metal cage is inflated to expand the diameter of the stent, opening the restricted artery and providing mechanical support to damaged arterial walls.

For decades, 316L stainless steel has been used successfully in a variety of commercially available and medically approved coronary stents. The trend in new stent designs has been to reduce stent thickness, so that the stent delivery catheter, with the stent on it, is more flexible. This allows the stent to be passed through more tortuous arterial paths, thereby facilitating treatment to obstructions that were previously untreatable by minimally invasive procedures.

But there was a catch. As the thickness of stent walls decreased, traditional 316L stainless steel became more difficult to see on x-ray. This made it difficult for the doctor, who must place the stent in precisely the right location in the artery, to see what he or she was doing—especially when the doctor needed to insert multiple stents next to each other in a single, extended location, or go back to further expand or adjust the position of a stent after implantation.

Enter NETL. More than 10 years ago, scientists at Boston Scientific called their colleagues at NETL wanting to know if the laboratory could help with research to improve coronary stents. Boston Scientific recognized NETL’s metallurgy capabilities and offered to fund the entire research project. Over the next decade, NETL and Boston Scientific worked together to design the PtCr alloy and develop the process methodology to produce the alloy for use as stent material.

The PtCr alloy solves many of the past problems surrounding traditional stents. The addition of platinum gives a stent physical properties that allow it to be both thin and visible on x-ray. Its flexibility allows easier movement through arterial bends without causing damage. The addition of high-melting platinum also gives the stent a higher corrosion resistance, which optimizes the stent’s long term stability within the body. The alloy’s increased strength also decreases recoil, which reduces the likelihood of constriction after deployment.

Following a series of trials—melting, casting, fabricating, and characterizing the properties of different alloys—and after many clinical trials, Boston Scientific’s PROMUS ELEMENT and ION stents, made from the novel PtCr alloy, were ready to market. Since introduction of the improved coronary stents in January 2010, sales have exceeded $1 billion. The breakthrough was recognized by R&D Magazine, which named the PtCr alloy one of the 100 most technologically significant products to enter the marketplace in the past year.

NETL’s materials sciences research team has done a wide variety of work in high-temperature alloy development and processing. NETL’s materials research includes making more effective armor for the Army, new turbine alloys to help the Nation’s power systems operate more efficiently, and now a medical alloy that helps save lives.

Related Articles Read More >

KIST carbon nanotube supercapacitor holds capacity after 100,000 cycles
A new wave of metalworking lets semiconductor crystals bend and stretch
LLNL deposits quantum dots on corrugated IR chips in a single step
KATRIN inauguration photo form 2018
Neutrinos pinned below 0.45 eV; KATRIN halves the particle’s mass ceiling
rd newsletter
EXPAND YOUR KNOWLEDGE AND STAY CONNECTED
Get the latest info on technologies, trends, and strategies in Research & Development.
RD 25 Power Index

R&D World Digital Issues

Fall 2024 issue

Browse the most current issue of R&D World and back issues in an easy to use high quality format. Clip, share and download with the leading R&D magazine today.

Research & Development World
  • Subscribe to R&D World Magazine
  • Enews Sign Up
  • Contact Us
  • About Us
  • Drug Discovery & Development
  • Pharmaceutical Processing
  • Global Funding Forecast

Copyright © 2025 WTWH Media LLC. All Rights Reserved. The material on this site may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, cached or otherwise used, except with the prior written permission of WTWH Media
Privacy Policy | Advertising | About Us

Search R&D World

  • R&D World Home
  • Topics
    • Aerospace
    • Automotive
    • Biotech
    • Careers
    • Chemistry
    • Environment
    • Energy
    • Life Science
    • Material Science
    • R&D Management
    • Physics
  • Technology
    • 3D Printing
    • A.I./Robotics
    • Software
    • Battery Technology
    • Controlled Environments
      • Cleanrooms
      • Graphene
      • Lasers
      • Regulations/Standards
      • Sensors
    • Imaging
    • Nanotechnology
    • Scientific Computing
      • Big Data
      • HPC/Supercomputing
      • Informatics
      • Security
    • Semiconductors
  • R&D Market Pulse
  • R&D 100
    • Call for Nominations: The 2025 R&D 100 Awards
    • R&D 100 Awards Event
    • R&D 100 Submissions
    • Winner Archive
    • Explore the 2024 R&D 100 award winners and finalists
  • Resources
    • Research Reports
    • Digital Issues
    • R&D Index
    • Subscribe
    • Video
    • Webinars
  • Global Funding Forecast
  • Top Labs
  • Advertise
  • SUBSCRIBE