1. A vascular graft for anastomosis of a pair of end portions (88\u2032) of a blood vessel, each end portion terminating at an end, said vascular graft comprising:
a first staple (1), a second staple (1), a first cylindrical element (4) and a second cylindrical element (4), each staple (1) comprising a ring (2) and a plurality of legs (3) extending therefrom, each leg (3) terminating at a tip, the first cylindrical element (4) being configured to define guide means for the first staple (1), the second cylindrical element (4) being configured to define guide means for the second staple (1), the first staple (1) being matable with the first cylindrical element (4) so that the first staple legs (3) extend through the first cylindrical element (4), the second staple (1) being matable with the second cylindrical element (4) so that the second staple legs (3) extend through the second cylindrical element (4), each of the cylindrical elements (4) having a diameter, a length and a configuration effective (a) to permit each of the cylindrical elements to be placed externally around one of the respective end portions (88\u2032), (b) to guide the legs of the corresponding staple to pierce a wall of the corresponding end portion from the outside with each tip of each leg ending up within the wall and short, of the end of the end portion, (c) to permit the two cylindrical elements to be brought together and fixed in position in relationship to each other so that the two ends of the end portions of the blood vessel abut each other in longitudinal relationship, wherein the legs of the first and second staple are deformable, to bend inwardly when the two elements are brought together.
2. (canceled)
3. The graft according to claim 1, wherein the first and second cylindrical elements (4) comprise a hollow cylindrical connecting element (4) and in that the guide means consist of a plurality of holes (6, 6\u2032) spaced and dimensioned to match the staple legs and made along at least one longitudinal section of the connecting element (4).
4. The graft according to claim 3, wherein the holes (6) are parallel to the axis of the connecting cylinder.
5. The graft according to claim 3, wherein the holes (6\u2032) are convergent with respect to the axis of the connecting cylinder.
6. The graft according claim 1, wherein said first and second cylindrical element (4) has an internal end edge (13) with a tapered guide profile.
7. The graft according to claim 1, wherein said first and second cylindrical element (4) has respective malefemale profiles to connect them to each other.
8. The graft according to claim 1, comprising reciprocal coupling element (16) equipped with means for engaging it with said first and second cylindrical element (4).
9. The graft according to claim 8, wherein the reciprocal coupling element (16) is a hollow cylinder whose diameter is such that it can be interference fitted with at least one portion of at least one connecting cylinder (4) of suitable diameter.
10. The graft according to claim 8, comprising snap engagement means (12, 18) between the reciprocal coupling element and at least one of said first and second cylindrical element (4).
11. The graft according to claim 8, wherein the reciprocal coupling element (16) is a hollow cylinder having at least one internal end edge with a tapered guide profile (20).
12. The graft according to claim 1, wherein the staple legs (3) are made of plastically deformable metal.
13-21. (canceled)
The claims below are in addition to those above.
All refrences to claim(s) which appear below refer to the numbering after this setence.
1. A method of manufacturing a high performance polymer and nanotube composite comprises the steps of:
providing a plurality of nylon resin pellets, a plurality of tungsten sulfide nanotubes, and a plastic extrusion machine;
grinding the plurality of nylon resin pellets into a nylon resin powder;
blending the plurality of tungsten sulfide nanotubes into the nylon resin powder to form a heterogeneous mixture in a solid state;
loading the heterogeneous mixture into the plastic extrusion machine;
heating the heterogeneous mixture within the plastic extrusion machine until the heterogeneous mixture is in a fluid state;
extruding the heterogeneous mixture into a pultrusion with the plastic extrusion machine; and
segmenting the pultrusion into a plurality of polymer composites while the pultrusion solidifies from cooling.
2. The method of manufacturing a high performance polymer and nanotube composite, the method as claimed in claim 1 comprises the step of:
frequently segmenting the pultrusion into a plurality of pellets, wherein the plurality of polymer composites is the plurality of pellets.
3. The method of manufacturing a high performance polymer and nanotube composite, the method as claimed in claim 1 comprises the step of:
sparsely segmenting the pultrusion into a plurality of elongated cords, wherein the plurality of polymer composites is the plurality of elongated cords.
4. The method of manufacturing a high performance polymer and nanotube composite, as claimed in claim 1, wherein the heterogeneous mixture is approximately 80% by weight of the nylon resin powder.
5. The method of manufacturing a high performance polymer and nanotube composite, as claimed in claim 1, wherein the heterogeneous mixture is approximately 20% by weight of the plurality of tungsten sulfide nanotubes.
6. The method of manufacturing a high performance polymer and nanotube composite, as claimed in claim 1, wherein each of the plurality of tungsten sulfide nanotubes is configured as a cylindrical lattice structure.
7. The method of manufacturing a high performance polymer and nanotube composite, as claimed in claim 1, wherein a fraction of the plurality of tungsten sulfide nanotubes is concentrically positioned within each other.
8. The method of manufacturing a high performance polymer and nanotube composite, as claimed in claim 1, wherein a diameter for each of the plurality of tungsten sulfide nanotubes is between five nanometers and eight nanometers.
9. The method of manufacturing a high performance polymer and nanotube composite, as claimed in claim 1, wherein a length for each of the plurality of tungsten sulfide nanotubes is between ten nanometers to twelve nanometers.
10. The method of manufacturing a high performance polymer and nanotube composite, as claimed in claim 1, wherein the plurality of nylon resin pellets is polyamide 66 polymer.