Textile Reinforced Balloon Braider

Significant Increase in Burst Pressure While Maintaining Flexibility and a Low Profile

Traditionally, medical balloons made from materials such as nylon, PEBA, or PET have been limited by their single-layer design. Steeger’s innovative solution involves the integration of a braid structure, resulting in a significant enhancement of strength and achieving higher burst pressures than previously attainable.

The key factors in the success of the braid structure are the material used, fiber denier (fiber thickness), pick count or fiber angle, braid pattern, braid count, and the number of tri-axials.

Braid Materials:

Typically, high-tensile, and high-modulus continuous filament and monofilament fibers are used, resulting in high-strength, low-compliance balloons

Increased Burst Pressures:

An increase in fiber denier and braid count leads to an increase in the burst pressure of balloons. To further enhance burst pressure, it is essential to optimize the braid angle and incorporate tri-axials, which are part of the braid structure that runs longitudinally along the length of the core and are braided in and out of every other crossing or pick. The number of the tri-axials is limited by the number of carriers on the braider. The maximum number of tri-axials is 50% of the total number of carriers.