Patent ID: 8419785

Claim:
A method of manufacturing a fine grained medical device, the method comprising: providing a specimen of a metal or metal alloy-fabricated from one or more of stainless steel, a cobalt-chromium alloy, a platinum-iridium alloy, a nickel-titanium alloy, tantalum, or a tantalum-based alloy; heating the specimen to a recrystallization temperature of the specimen; holding the temperature of the specimen at or above the recrystallization temperature so as to stabilize the specimen temperature; following holding the temperature of the specimen at or above the recrystallization temperature, applying an external force to deform the specimen in more than one axis at or above the recrystallization temperature to a net deformation in the range of about seventy-five percent to about ninety-five percent; holding the specimen temperature at or above the recrystallization temperature for a predetermined time to achieve a desired grain size in the specimen; cooling the specimen to about room temperature; and forming a medical device from the specimen.