| 摘要 |
A knee guard and brace having bilaterally symmetrical, semi-rigid thigh and calf encasements for the protection of the knee area from the thigh to the calf. The device, other than padding and retaining screws, is made entirely of a thermoplastic material by an injection molding process. Ribs which run parallel to a wearer's leg are pivotally interconnected at the side of the knee joint. Stress on each screw which retains the end portions of a pair of ribs in overlapping engagement at a pivotal joint is reduced by the use of a shoulder and of a groove and ring projection, the groove being concentric with the shoulder in one of the ribs and being slidably engaged with the ring projection which protrudes from the contiguous face of the other rib. Sections of the ribs which are disposed above and below the knee joint area are embedded in the thigh and calf encasements, respectively. On either side of a pivotal joint, the juncture of each rib with an encasement is strengthened by means of a reinforcing abutment. The embedded rib sections are tapered, the taper decreasing in the direction away from the pivotal joint. The weight of the ribs is further reduced, without loss in the overall strength of the device, by recessing a portion of each tapered rib section. The encasements are secured to a wearer's leg by means of straps, the encasements having flanges in which holes are molded so that the flanges can be seated over studs which are molded in the straps.
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