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Crimp stop and method of making the same

Crimp stop and method of making the same description/claims

This application is a nonprovisional application and claims benefit of the filing date of provisional application Ser. No. 60/948,558, filed Jul. 9, 2007, the contents of which are incorporated herein in their entireties.

Prior art crimp stops are cast from melted steel or are injection molded and are very thick in dimension. A thicker crimp stop that is annealed by melting can be adequately soft, but have the drawbacks of being bulky and expensive, as more metal is squeezed against the underlying wires.

One prior art crimp stop is disclosed by Brosius, US PG Pub 2007/0042314 A1, which provides a crimpable orthodontic device attempting to solve the problem of crimp stops tending to slide down an archwire. As stated by Brosius, methods such as coating the inner side of the stop has drawbacks including cost and also the coating may wear off over time. In Brosius ('314), the inner surfaces of the crimp stop are etched, stamped, or otherwise roughened to increase friction and resist slippage between the crimpable stop and the orthodontic wire. The prior art device of Brosius ('314) also includes upper and lower edges to lock around the archwire to hold the wire in place. Brosius ('314) involves an etching process to increase the holding power, but the full annealing of thin-walled, non-cast or non-molded crimp stops to greatly improve their working and holding power is not disclosed. The prior art does not teach or disclose fully annealing the stainless steel crimp stop to soften the stop and allow it to be crimped in place.

The present invention relates to a crimp stop comprising a U-shaped cross-section member made of a metal material, the member being annealed to soften the metal material.

The present invention also relates to a process for making a crimp stop, comprising forming a metal material into a member having a U-shaped cross-section, and annealing the member by heating, and cooling the annealed member to soften the metal material.

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a crimp stop of the present invention;

FIG. 2 is a side view of a crimp stop of the present invention; and

FIG. 3 is a front view of the crimp stop shown in FIG. 2.

This invention relates to an improved orthodontic device and method of making the same. More particularly, this invention relates to a method of making a crimp stop in a simpler and more cost effective manner than prior art crimp stops. By fully annealing a crimp stop of a desired thickness, a soft crimp stop may be fastened to an orthodontic wire without costly and time consuming steps such as etching and coating to improve the hold of the crimp stop to the wire.

A crimp stop is needed that can be made more efficiently, using less steps, and is less costly than the crimp stop now present in the prior art. The present invention uses a simpler method of manufacturing the crimp stop, creating a different product than that of the prior art.

• Provisional Patent
• Utility Patent

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