The invention relates to devices for the treatment of heart disease and
particularly to endo-arterial prostheses, which are commonly called
stents. More particularly, the invention relates to methods of
manufacturing and coating stents utilizing thermal spray processing
(TSP). In one aspect the invention involves the use of TSP for the
manufacture of fine grained tubing for subsequent use as a stent or other
tubular or ring-based implant, or the manufacture of intermediate sized
tubing that may then be drawn to final size tubing and for the coating of
a stent. An average grain size of less than 64 microns is achieved by the
invention resulting in a stent having an annular wall average thickness
of about eight or more grains.