Interchangeable Rotating Shaft Collector

The interchangeable rotating shaft collector is an adaptable rotating collector as a substrate that allows formation of thin tubular structures that can be used for applications such as veinous and arterial structures for biomedical applications or wirelike structures for providing material insulation/isolation.   

Versatility: Different diameters shafts can allow formation of tube-like structures that can mimic various physiological areas addressing a range of applications such as heart valves and stents. 

Aligned fibers: Fibers can be collected on this shaft collector at high rpm to achieve aligned fibers.

Easy installation: The collector setup is easily installed and removed from the standard electrospinning machine similar to the flat collector.

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How does it work:

Shaft with appropriate diameter for the electrospinning process is selected and housed in the collector. The shaft collector is installed on the collector side of the machine and connected to voltage supply. The appropriate conditions for the shaft are selected in the “Motion Adjustment” page of the software for the process. The collector can also be supported with Negative high voltage for preferential nanofiber deposition on the shaft. 

    1. Tubular structures: Vascular graft applications are possible with tubular structures made with shaft/rod/mandrel collectors by depositing bioabsorbable materials on a high rpm rod collector [1]. These structures can be made with polymers such as PCL, PU, PLA and their combinations with each other as well as Heparin and Collagen [2]. These structures are mostly standalone and do not require a template after their production.
  • Fiber optimization using high rpm: Research has shown that with increasing the collector speed such as 1500 rpm or more, the jet whipping behavior and fiber morphology on the shaft changes which results to highly oriented fiber deposition, relatively low polydispersity in fiber diameter and thinner fibers, and consequently, improved mechanical properties [3]. 
  1. Coatings on metallic stents: Stents are prone to failure such as in-stent restenosis in physiological environment. Coating the metallic stents with electrospun fibers has shown promise over the years in overcoming this issue whether in cerebral aneurysm [4] or stent-based angioplasty [5].

 

  1. Thomas, V., Donahoe, T., Nyairo, E., Dean, D. R., & Vohra, Y. K. (2011). Electrospinning of Biosyn®-based tubular conduits: structural, morphological, and mechanical characterizations. Acta biomaterialia, 7(5), 2070-2079.
  2. Tejeda-Alejandre R, Lammel-Lindemann JA, Lara-Padilla H, Dean D, Rodriguez CA. Influence of Electrical Field Collector Positioning and Motion Scheme on Electrospun Bifurcated Vascular Graft Membranes. Materials. 2019; 12(13):2123. https://doi.org/10.3390/ma12132123 
  3. Demirtaş, M. S., & Saha, M. C. (2024). Engineering highly aligned continuous nanofibers via electrospinning: A comprehensive study on collector design, electrode geometry, and collector speed. Express Polymer Letters, 18(8), 851-867.
  4. Kuraishi, K., Iwata, H., Nakano, S., Kubota, S., Tonami, H., Toda, M., Toma, N., Matsushima, S., Hamada, K., Ogawa, S. and Taki, W. (2009), Development of nanofiber-covered stents using electrospinning: In vitro and acute phase in vivo experiments. J. Biomed. Mater. Res., 88B: 230-239. https://doi.org/10.1002/jbm.b.31173
  5. Janjic, M., Pappa, F., Karagkiozaki, V., Gitas, C., Ktenidis, K., & Logothetidis, S. (2017). Surface modification of endovascular stents with rosuvastatin and heparin-loaded biodegradable nanofibers by electrospinning. International Journal of Nanomedicine, 12, 6343–6355. https://doi.org/10.2147/IJN.S138261