Abstract: A tube-shaped knee brace having a first opening designed to be positioned above the wearer's knee joint, a second opening designed to be positioned below the wearer's knee joint, and a center opening disposed between the first and second openings, the center opening formed to accommodate the knee joint of the wearer wherein the brace has at least two pouches, each one of which is disposed along a length of the brace and wherein each one of the pouches contain a cylindrical spring generally formed in the shape of a helix configuration with advantages over the prior art.

Abstract: Rapidly solidified aluminum base alloy is flow formed into tubes and tubular components using conventional flow forming equipment. A preform of preselected configuration and wall thickness for either forward or back spinning is fabricated. Flow forming is then carried out. The beginning of the flow forming step is offset by leaving undeformed a small section of the preform.

Abstract: Disclosed is a method for preparing laminated thermoplastic composite structures comprised of at least one filler reinforced thermoplastic layer and at least one reinforcing layer of glass-fiber mat contiguous to at least one surface of said reinforced layer wherein an intermediate non-reinforced polymeric layer is applied between each glass-fiber mat/reinforced layer interface thereby achieving thorough impregnation of the glass-fiber mat with thermoplastic resin.