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 . 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 .