Adjustable Door Hinge Bracket for Vertical Alignment

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Solution Overview

Problem

Utility vehicles often experience vertical displacement issues between the door and adjacent members due to variations in attachment positions and shapes, leading to uneven appearances.

Innovation Solution

A utility vehicle design that includes a hinge base attached to the vehicle body frame, a door, and an intermediate bracket that allows adjustable positioning of the hinge bracket, enabling vertical alignment of the door with adjacent members through rotatable fastening holes and bolts.

Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles

VSEngineering Contradiction Analysis

1Manufacturing precision

If the door is attached to the vehicle body frame using a hinge base and hinge bracket with fixed positions, then the structure is simple and easy to manufacture, but vertical displacement occurs between the door panel and adjacent members due to variations in fixing position and shape, deteriorating the appearance

Engineering Contradiction:

Improvevertical position alignmentVSAvoidhinge structure

Core Design Contradiction:

Manufacturing precisionVSDevice complexity

Solution Approach 1:

The hinge bracket is made adjustable in the vertical direction relative to the intermediate bracket, transforming a static fixed-position structure into a dynamic adjustable one. This allows the vertical position of the door to be modified to compensate for variations in attachment positions, thereby aligning the door with adjacent members while maintaining a relatively simple overall structure.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #15Dynamics

Solution Approach 2:

The vertical position parameter of the hinge bracket is made changeable through an adjustable attachment mechanism to the intermediate bracket. By changing this parameter, the door's vertical position can be adjusted to achieve proper alignment with the front and rear fenders, resolving the appearance issue without complicating the fundamental hinge structure.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #35Parameter changes

2Ease of manufacture

If the hinge bracket is attached at the front end of the door, then the attachment structure is simplified, but variations in vertical direction become large at the rear end of the door, causing uneven vertical positions between the door and adjacent members

Engineering Contradiction:

Improvehinge bracket attachmentVSAvoidvertical position uniformity

Core Design Contradiction:

Ease of manufactureVSManufacturing precision

Solution Approach 1:

An intermediate bracket is introduced as a mediator between the hinge base and the hinge bracket. This intermediate component provides an adjustable attachment point that allows compensation for the vertical position variations occurring at the rear end of the door, enabling uniform vertical alignment while maintaining the simplified front-end attachment structure.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #24Intermediary (Mediator)

Data Source

PatentUS11319738B2Utility vehicle

Publication Date: 2022.05.03 KAWASAKI MOTORS LTD

AI summary

A utility vehicle includes a vehicle body frame, a hinge base attached to the vehicle body frame, a door provided to be openable and closable in a vehicle width direction with respect to the vehicle body frame, a hinge bracket attached to the door, and an intermediate bracket that is pivotably attached to the hinge base and to which the hinge bracket is attached. The hinge bracket is configured so that a position thereof with respect to the intermediate bracket can be adjusted, and thereby the door is configured to be adjustable in a vertical position.