A solid-state drawing method for preparing a surgical suture or a biodegradable stent having improved flexibility and mechanical strength. The method for preparing a biodegradable stent includes (a) providing a biodegradable filament that comprises a material which is biodegradable; (b) solid-state drawing the biodegradable filament to provide a drawn biodegradable filament; (c) shaping the drawn biodegradable filament to provide a shaped biodegradable filament; and (d) annealing the shaped biodegradable filament to provide the biodegradable stent, wherein the biodegradable filament has a draw ratio that ranges from 1.1 to 5.0; and wherein the draw ratio is calculated by Equation 1 below:
Draw ratio=(L.sub.SSD/L.sub.O).sup.2, where L.sub.O is length of the biodegradable filament before the solid-state drawing, and L.sub.SSD is the length of the biodegradable filament after the solid-state drawing.

The present invention provides a method for manufacturing a polyacetal fiber in which whiteness irregularity is improved. One embodiment of the present invention provides a method for manufacturing a polyacetal fiber, wherein the method includes a discharge step, a takeup step, a stretching step, and a winding step, the steps being continuously performed, an oxymethylene copolymer being used as the raw material of the polyacetal fiber, the oxymethylene copolymer having an oxymethylene unit and an oxyethylene unit, the content of the oxyethylene unit being 0.5-7.0 moles to 100 moles of the oxymethylene unit, the roller temperature of a stretching unit used in the stretching step being 130-155 C., and operation parameters of the method being set so as to satisfy a prescribed numerical formula.

This process for manufacturing a carbon-fiber precursor acrylic fiber bundle and this steam drawing apparatus are characterized in that the drawing of an acrylic fiber bundle with a pressured-steam drawing apparatus is conducted by: opening an acrylic fiber bundle by blowing a fluid thereto; supplying humidifying steam to the opened acrylic fiber bundle at a fiber temperature of 80 to 130 C. to adjust the water content of the fiber bundle to 3 to 7%; and thereafter drawing the resulting acrylic fiber bundle in a pressurized-steam atmosphere. Thus, the present invention can prevent the breaking of a single fiber, the fluffing of the fiber bundle, and the breaking of the whole of the fiber bundle, though such defects are susceptible to occurring in a case where an acrylic fiber bundle is drawn by steam drawing at a high draw ratio, at a higher speed, or into a fiber having a small denier.

A fiber structure for a fiber-reinforced composite material includes a section in which a width varies continuously along a central axis in a plan view. In a section in which the width increases continuously along the central axis, discontinuous fibers are aligned radially along the central axis, and both a thickness of the fiber structure and a density of the discontinuous fibers are uniform.

Systems, methods, and apparatus to provide artificial whisker filaments are disclosed and described. An example artificial whisker is tapered to include a tip diameter smaller than a base diameter of the artificial whisker, the artificial whisker formed from a polymer arranged to permit elastic deformation of the artificial whisker, the deformation of the artificial whisker to transmit force to a sensor associated with a base of the artificial whisker. An example method of manufacturing an artificial whisker includes removably affixing a first end of a filament to a heated, non-stick surface; drawing the filament across the surface to form a first, tapered portion, a second portion of the filament remaining on the surface, wherein the filament is to be drawn until the first portion is disengaged from the surface; and separating the first, tapered portion of the filament from the second portion of the filament to form a tapered artificial whisker.

The present invention is directed to an undrawn multifilament including 30 or more individual filaments. In the undrawn multifilament, the individual filaments contain a poly(3-hydroxyalkanoate) resin and a nucleating agent, the mean of the finenesses of the individual filaments is 30 dtex or less, and the coefficient of variation of the finenesses of the individual filaments is 33% or less.

A fiber structure for a fiber-reinforced composite material includes a section in which a width varies continuously along a central axis in a plan view. In a section in which the width increases continuously along the central axis, discontinuous fibers are aligned radially along the central axis, and both a thickness of the fiber structure and a density of the discontinuous fibers are uniform.

A biodegradable stent and a method for preparing the same, which more particularly relate to a technology of preparing a biodegradable stent with improved flexibility and mechanical strength. The method includes a step of solid-state drawing a biodegradable filament and a step of shaping and then annealing the drawn biodegradable filament.

A drawing device for drawing a drawable material, the drawing device comprising at least a pair of tapered rollers each having a taper ratio in a range of 0.035 to 0.50, wherein the taper ratio is represented by ()/2L, where denotes a maximum diameter of the roller, denotes a minimum diameter of the roller, and L denotes a length of a tapered portion of the roller.

An apparatus for making a nonwoven spunbond web has a spinneret for making endless filaments moving in a predetermined direction. A monomer extractor downstream from the spinneret has an upstream extractor end face directed upstream and forming a gap with a downstream spinneret end face. A cooler downstream of the extractor for the filaments has an upstream cooler end face forming with a downstream extractor end face a second gap. A stretcher downstream of the cooler for the cooled filaments has an upstream stretcher end face forming a third gap with the downstream cooler end face. The filaments are deposited on a web former by the stretcher to form the nonwoven spunbond web. A deformable seal for seals one of the gaps, and means connected to the deformable seal press the seal against the end faces forming the one gap with a variable pressure or contact face.