Patent ID: 8470006

Claim:
A bone repair system, comprising: (a) a bone plate; and (b) a bone screw retention mechanism comprising a spring structure ( 14 ) having first and second ends, a length, a structure top and a structure bottom, and a structure height (H) therebetween, said spring structure further comprising (i) first and second resilient bands ( 36 A, 36 B) each having first and second ends, a band top associated with the structure top, and a band bottom associated with the structure bottom, said resilient bands having respective lengths thereof, said first and second bands each having an outer surface ( 46 ) facing outwardly of said spring structure, and an inner surface, the inner surfaces facing each other and facing inwardly into said spring structure, said first and second resilient bands defining a width (W 1 ) of said spring structure between the outer surfaces ( 46 ), and (ii) resilient springs ( 38 ) spaced along the length of said spring structure, said resilient springs extending between and connected to said resilient bands, and having spring lengths extending between the first and second resilient bands, said resilient springs having spring tops and spring bottoms, opposing spring sides, spring heights between the spring tops and the spring bottoms, spring widths (W) between the opposing spring sides, angles α being defined between the resilient springs ( 38 ) and the inner surfaces of said bands ( 36 ), and angles β being defined between the band tops and the spring tops, ratio W/H of the widths of the resilient springs ( 38 ) to the heights of the springs being less than 1/1, and wherein, when a squeezing force is applied at one of said first and second ends said spring structure ( 14 ), which moves respective ends of said first and second bands ( 36 ) resiliently toward each other, said spring structure resiliently deflects so as to accommodate reduced width (W 1 ) of said spring structure ( 14 ) in preference to deflecting in a direction corresponding to the structure height (H), such that the response of said spring structure ( 14 ) to such squeezing force is a preferential resilient change in magnitude of angle α relative to change in magnitude of angle β.