Gunze Limited

Daiki Kobayashi

Kazutaka Sekiya

Hiroshi Ohshima

Hiroshi Oshima

Masashi Kikuchi

There is provided a thermoplastic fluororesin tube that, during the production of a catheter, can prevent a gap or air bubbles from being formed in the connection part of the catheter, and can be suitably used for the production of a catheter. A thermoplastic fluororesin tube, the thermoplastic fluororesin tube having tearability in a longitudinal direction, wherein a thermal expansion coefficient in the longitudinal direction upon heating in a gaseous phase at a temperature of 100&#xb0; C. for 5 minutes is 0% or more.

Thermoplastic fluororesin tube

Provided are a tube that has high inner-surface smoothness and outer-surface smoothness and a thickness distribution with a small variation, and a method for manufacturing the tube. The tube includes points a, b, c, and d that satisfy the following conditions (1) and (2): (1) 0.9&#x3c;Rea/Rec&#x3c;1.1 and 0.9&#x3c;Reb/Red&#x3c;1.1; and (2) Rea/Reb&#x2264;0.9 or Rea/Reb&#x2265;1.1. The points a, b, c, and d are four random points that are located on the circumference of the tube on any cross section in the axial direction of the tube, and are aligned in the stated order in a circumferential direction. Rea, Reb, Rec, and Red respectively indicate retardations at the points a, b, c, and d. The tube satisfies the following condition (3): (3) (10-point standard deviation/10-point average)&#xd7;100&#x2264;2 in the respective sets A, B, C, and D. Each of the sets A, B, C, and D includes retardations at ten random points present in a range between the point a, b, c, or d and a point 5 mm away from that point in the axial direction.

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Konan, Japan

Daiki Kobayashi