A novel diaphragm-to-housing junction adhesive method: alumina ball milling

An alumina ball milling method was applied to enhance the adhesiveness and smoothness of the diaphragm-to-housing (D-H) junction. The impact produced by the three rotating alumina balls along the meshed junction made the surface of the junction uniform and smooth. The quality of the D-H junction was evaluated by various methods, such as inspection using an optical microscope and a scanning electron microscope, smoothness examination by an atomic force microscope, and measurement of the tensile strength. All the evaluations revealed marked improvements, and the platelet adhesion test revealed that the alumina ball milling method plays an important role in the blood compatibility enhancement of the D-H junction.Part of this paper was presented at the poster session of the ASAIO (2002) meeting