CATHETER SLEEVE ASSEMBLY AND ONE STEP INJECTION MOLDING PROCESS FOR MAKING THE SAME

摘要

An enhanced catheter introducer (10) and method for making the same are disclosed. The catheter (10) introduced may have a splittable sleeve assembly (16) configured to be inserted into a blood vessel with a cannula (24). The cannula (24) may then be removed, and a catheter (12) may be inserted into the sleeve assembly (16). The sleeve assembly (16) may be removed from the catheter (12) by pulling handles (34, 36) of the sleeve assembly (16) in different directions to split the sleeve assembly (16) into two pieces. The sleeve assembly (16) may have failure zones (50, 52) that enable the sleeve assembly (16) to be easily split; the failure zones (50, 52) may take the form of thinned regions (50, 52) running along the length of the sleeve assembly (16). The sleeve assembly (16) may be injection molded with a single step by injecting flows of molten plastic into a cavity of a mold (110) such that the flows converge into an even distribution about the circumference of the sleeve (30). The mold (110) may have a core pin designed to fit into the cavity. Through the use of the even distribution of flows, the core pin (140) may seat within the cavity in an untensioned manner.