Manufacturing methods for covering endoluminal prostheses

1. A method for electrospinning comprising:

providing a target and an electrospinning apparatus;

the target comprising a first surface and an opposing second surface;

the electrospinning apparatus comprising a mandrel, a mask including an aperture, a reservoir loaded with a solution, an orifice fluidly coupled to the reservoir, an energy source electrically coupled to the orifice and the mandrel and further comprising applying a first electrical potential with the energy source between the orifice and the mandrel and a second electrical potential to the mask where the second electrical potential is less that the first electrical potential;

locating the mandrel adjacent the target second surface, locating the orifice at a distance from the target first surface, and locating the mask intermediate the orifice and the target first surface;

electrospinning the solution through the mask aperture onto the target first surface; and

where the first electrical potential is between about 10 kV and about 30 kV and the second electrical potential is between about 5 kV and about 18 kV.

2. The method of claim 1 , where the distance between the orifice and the target first surface is between about 5 inches to about 8 inches.

3. The method of claim 2 , where the distance between the orifice and the mask is between about 2 inches to about 4 inches.

4. The method of claim 1 , further comprising moving the orifice relative to the target.

5. The method of claim 1 , where the aperture comprises a shape selected from the group consisting of round, obround, polygonal, rectangular, square, freeform, or combinations thereof.

6. A method for preparing an endoluminal prosthesis comprising:

providing an endoluminal prosthesis and an electrospinning apparatus;

the endoluminal prosthesis defining an interior lumen with a proximal end, a distal end, a first surface and an opposing second surface;

the electrospinning apparatus comprising a mandrel, a mask including an aperture, a reservoir loaded with a solution, an orifice fluidly coupled to the reservoir, and an energy source electrically coupled to the orifice and the mandrel;

locating the mandrel at least partially within the endoluminal prosthesis lumen, locating the orifice at a distance from the endoluminal prosthesis first surface, and locating the mask intermediate the orifice and the endoluminal prosthesis first surface;

applying a first electrical potential with the energy source to the orifice and the mask, and grounding the mandrel;

applying a second electrical potential to the mask, where the second electrical potential is less than the first electrical potential;

electrospinning the solution through the mask aperture onto the endoluminal prosthesis first surface;

where the first electrical potential is between about 10 kV to about 30 kV and the second electrical potential is between about 5 kV to about 18 kV.

7. The method of claim 6 , where the solution comprises at least one material selected from the group comprising polymers, proteins, and bioactive agents.

8. The method of claim 6 , where the distance between the orifice and the endoluminal prosthesis first surface is between about 5 inches to about 8 inches.

9. The method of claim 8 , where the distance between the orifice and the mask is between about 2 inches to about 4 inches.

10. The method of claim 6 , further comprising moving the endoluminal prosthesis at least longitudinally relative to the orifice and further comprising electrospinning the solution about a longitudinal length of the endoluminal prosthesis.

11. The method of claim 6 , further comprising moving the endoluminal prosthesis at least rotationally about an axis orthogonal to the orifice and further comprising electrospinning the solution about a circumferential length of the endoluminal prosthesis.

12. The method of claim 6 , where the aperture comprises a shape selected from the group consisting of round, obround, polygonal, rectangular, square, freeform, or combinations thereof.

13. The method of claim 1 , the mandrel comprising a material selected form the group consisting of metallic material and polymeric material.

14. The method of claim 1 , the mandrel comprising a polytetrafluoroethy lene coating.

15. A method for preparing an endoluminal prosthesis comprising:

providing an endoluminal prosthesis and an electrospinning apparatus;

the endoluminal prosthesis defining an interior lumen with a proximal end, a distal end, a first surface and an opposing second surface;

the electrospinning apparatus comprising a mandrel, a mask including an aperture, a reservoir loaded with a solution, an orifice fluidly coupled to the reservoir, a ground plane, and an energy source electrically coupled to the orifice, the mandrel and the mask;

locating the mandrel at least partially within the endoluminal prosthesis lumen and adjacent the endoluminal prosthesis second surface, locating the orifice between about 5 inches to about 8 inches from the endoluminal prosthesis first surface, and locating the mask intermediate the orifice and the endoluminal prosthesis first surface and between about 2 inches to about 4 inches from the orifice;

applying a first electrical potential between about 10 kV to about 30 kV with the energy source to the orifice and a second electrical potential between about 5 kV to about 18 kV with the energy source to the mask;

grounding the mandrel and the ground plane;

moving the orifice relative to the endoluminal prosthesis;

electrospinning the solution through the mask aperture onto the endoluminal prosthesis first surface.