Patent ID: 7763198

Claim:
A method of mounting a stent on a balloon catheter, comprising: applying a drug coating to the stent; positioning the stent on a balloon of the balloon catheter to create an assembly, wherein the stent includes an open-walled body formed from struts with gaps; placing the stent and balloon catheter assembly into one half of complementary halves of a split mold, and closing the halves to enclose the assembly therein; applying a first radially compressive force via the split mold on an outer surface of the stent, thereby decreasing the outer diameter of the stent on the balloon catheter; pressurizing and heating the balloon while restricting radial expansion of the outer surface of the stent such that an outer surface of the expanding balloon embeds into the stent gaps; and applying a second radially compressive force via the split mold on the outer surface of the stent.