Patent ID: 8440090

Claim:
A method for forming a catheter tubing with a variable stiffness, comprising: providing a length of a multi-layer extrusion to serve as a backbone for the catheter tubing, said multi-layer extrusion having an outer layer and an inner layer; removing a portion of the outer layer from a distal end of said multi-layer extrusion to an intermediate location to expose the inner layer; sliding a first extrusion segment having a stiffness that differs from that of the outer layer of the multi-layer extrusion over the exposed inner layer until the first extrusion segment abuts the outer layer of the multi-layer extrusion at the intermediate location; placing a length of shrink tubing over the abutting portion of the first extrusion segment and the multi-layer extrusion; and heating the shrink tubing to mate the abutting extrusion segment to the multi-layer extrusion.