US 6,129,766 AGranted

Prosthetic foot assembly having improved resilient cushions and components

AssigneeCollege Park Industries, Inc.

InventorsChristopher Lyle Johnson, Eric Lloyd Robinson

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Abstract

A prosthetic foot assembly, said assembly includes an ankle member, a heel member pivotally connected to the ankle member, an elongate metatarsal-toe member having a rear portion underlying a forward portion of the heel member and projecting forwardly from the heel member. The metatarsal-toe member being pivotally connected to the heel member. A first compressible element is engaged between a portion of the ankle member and a portion of the heel member and a second compressible element having first and second substantially circular bearing surfaces engaged between a portion of the heel member and a portion of the metatarsal-toe member to resist upward pivotal movement of a forward end of the metatarsal-toe member relative to the heel member. A portion of the compressible element spaced apart from one of the bearing surfaces has a smaller diameter than the diameter of at least one of the first and second bearing surfaces. Also disclosed is a prosthetic foot assembly incorporating noise abatement features including surface treatments and modified compressible elements or pads.

Claims21

Dependent claims

A prosthetic foot assembly, said assembly comprising:

an ankle member having shoulders extending from each side thereof, said shoulders each having an aperture therethrough;
a foreheel member having a top surface and a bottom surface pivotally connected to said ankle member by an axle;
said foreheel member having a central portion positioned between said shoulders of said ankle member, said central portion having a central transverse bore aligned with said apertures in said shoulders of said ankle member to form a passage through said foreheel member and said ankle member;
said central bore having a diameter larger than the diameter of said axle, said central bore having concentrically aligned counter-bores disposed in each side thereof;
a resilient bushing positioned in each counter-bore, each bushing having an aperture therethrough;
and
a rigid liner positioned in the apertures of each resilient bushing, said rigid liner having a inner diameter sized to receive said axle, whereby said resilient bushings allow for resiliently resisted movement of said axle transverse to the longitudinal axis of said axle and said axle is decoupled from said ankle member.

4 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.