DOUBLE-RASCHEL-KNITTED TUBE FOR ARTIFICIAL BLOOD VESSELS AND PROCESS FOR PRODUCING SAME

摘要

[Problem] To provide: a process for producing a double-raschel-knitted tube for artificial blood vessels, in which the occurrence of thread breakage or fluffing can be minimized and which can be knitted with high efficiency; and a double-raschel-knitted tube for artificial blood vessels, which is produced by the process. [Solution] The present invention is a process for producing a double-raschel-knitted tube (W) for artificial blood vessels, comprising: refining a raw silk thread (2) which is composed of N plies of silk threads (1) each composed of a pair of core parts (41) formed by fibroin (11) and a skin part (42) surrounding the core parts (41) and formed by sericin (12); removing a portion of sericin (12) and leaving a portion of sericin (12) so as to separate the pair of core parts (41) from each other, thereby forming 2N plies of fibroin threads (4) each having a skin-core structure, thus producing sericin-coated silk threads (5) each of which is composed of the 2N plies of fibroin threads (4) each having a skin-core structure; subsequently subjecting the sericin-coated silk threads (5) to first twisting to produce first-twisted silk threads; combining a few plies of the first-twisted silk threads and then subjecting the combined first-twisted silk threads to second twisting to produce a plied silk yarn; and subsequently carrying out knitting using the plied silk yarn (T) as a knitting yarn (Y) to form a tubular knitted material.