ALEXANDRIA, Va., May 26 -- United States Patent no. 12,636,051, issued on May 26, was assigned to Dynamic Balancer Systems LLC (Belmont, N.C.).
"Tensioner-balancer for knee joint" was invented by J. Dean Cole (Orlando, Fla.), Franz W. Kellar (Gastonia, N.C.), Harold L. Crowder (Concord, N.C.), Michael D. Bissette (Belmont, N.C.) and Franz Austen Kellar (Gastonia, N.C.).
According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "A knee gap tensioning apparatus includes: a baseplate, a top plate, and a linkage operable to move the top plate relative to the bottom plate between retracted and extended positions, the linkage including: a first toggle linkage, including a lower link and an upper link; a second toggle linkage, i...