Event: 2nd of 3= Pulse and DC Electropolishing of Stainless Steel For Stents and Other Devices

Anshuman Bhuyan & Seow Yuen Yee, Undergraduate Students, Univ. of Michigan
This paper describes optimized conditions for the electropolishing of austenitic type 304 and 316L stainless steels in commercially-available EPS 4000 solution (based on a mixture of phosphoric and sulfuric acids) for use in cardiac stenting applications. Electropolishing parameters such as electrolyte temperature and concentration, current density, polishing duration, use of pulsed current and ultrasonic agitation have been explored and optimal conditions have been found. Quality of the polishing was determined on the average surface roughness, amount of thickness reduction, and overall surface appearance. Samples polished in an ultrasonic bath with pulsed currents of 50Hz, and 60 °~C achieved the lowest surface roughness with little or no evidence of surface defects which were present in other recipes. Similar results were seen in both types 304 and 316L stainless steels.

BIO: Anshuman Bhuyan was born on September 26, 1985 in Assam, India. He spent a major part of his life in Oman, a country in the middle-east, where he completed his high school under an Indian educational system. In 2002, he joined the University of Michigan for his undergraduate studies in Electrical Engineering. He is currently in his fourth year. His research experiences encompass a variety of areas in engineering ranging from Microwave Circuit, MEMS to Bioinformatics. He is a member of Eta Kappa Nu and IEEE. He plans to pursue his PhD in MEMS and Integrated Circuits.

BIO: Seow Yuen Yee is currently pursuing her third year undergraduate degree toward a B.S. in Electrical Engineering at the University of Michigan and expects to graduate by May 2007. After graduating from high school in Malaysia, she came to the United States for undergraduate studies in August 2003 under a full financial scholarship from her government. Through the WIMS Summer 2005 WUGR Program, she had her first research project under the direction of Professor Yogesh Gianchandani from the Department of EECS, University of Michigan. She contributed to a research paper that was accepted and presented at IEEE Sensors Conference 2005. She is a member of Eta Kappa Nu since Jan 2005 and was awarded the "most Outstanding Electee" for Winter 2005. She received the EECS Honor Award for Junior Scholars 2004-2005 and was on the University of Michigan’s Dean's List, April 2005.