Floating pivot hinge and knee brace

Abstract From the Canadian patent

A knee brace includes a thigh cuff having inner and outer spaced brace arms adapted to extend along the user's thigh toward the knee, a calf cuff including inner and outer spaced brace arms adapted to extend along the user's calf toward the knee, and floating pivot axis hinges rotatably connecting the inner and outer brace arms of each pair. The hinge is formed by a pair of juxtaposed hinge plates, each having a pivot face in opposition to a pivot face on the juxtaposed plate with, a concave groove in each of the face. A pivot bearing ball is confined between the opposed faces and retained in the concave grooves. A spring, bellville spring or, disk spring biases the hinge plates together …