Domestic-appliance hinge and domestic appliance
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing household appliance hinges, particularly those for baking ovens, face challenges in maintaining equilibrium over a large opening angle due to manufacturing tolerances and wear, leading to inconsistent door stability and movement.
Innovation Solution
A household appliance hinge with a length-variable cartridge and spring element, accommodated between lateral housing cheeks, provides a variable frictional force to maintain door stability by compressing against the cheeks, ensuring a constant braking effect and load-bearing capacity, even with wear and tolerances.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If a friction device with fixed components is used, then the structure is simple, but the braking effect changes due to wear and manufacturing tolerances
Solution Approach 1:
The cartridge is designed as a length-variable component that can change its length dynamically. As the cartridge wears or due to manufacturing tolerances, its length adjusts automatically, maintaining constant contact pressure against the housing cheeks and ensuring consistent braking effect throughout the service life of the hinge.
Solution Approach 2:
The invention changes the physical parameter of the cartridge (its length) to compensate for wear and manufacturing variations. The variable length allows the cartridge to adapt its dimensions, maintaining optimal friction conditions despite component degradation or tolerance variations.
2Reliability
If a spring element is added to provide friction force, then the door stability is improved, but the device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The spring element is integrated within the cartridge structure, combining the friction-generating function and the force-providing function in a single compact component. This merging approach provides door stability through the spring's constant force while maintaining relative structural simplicity.
Solution Approach 2:
The cartridge acts as an intermediary component between the hinge arm and the housing cheeks. It translates the spring's elastic force into consistent frictional braking force, mediating between the door's movement and the friction resistance to achieve stable door positioning.
3Reliability
If manufacturing tolerances are reduced to improve equilibrium, then the manufacturing precision is improved, but the ease of manufacture deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The variable-length cartridge design allows the hinge to self-adjust and compensate for manufacturing tolerances automatically during operation. Instead of requiring high-precision manufacturing, the system uses its own variable geometry to adapt to dimensional variations, achieving reliable equilibrium without stringent manufacturing requirements.
4Reliability
If the friction force is increased to improve door holding, then the door stability is improved, but the ease of operation deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The friction device is designed to provide localized friction force at specific contact points (housing cheeks) rather than uniform resistance throughout the door's range of motion. The variable-length cartridge allows friction to be applied where needed to hold the door, while maintaining ease of operation during intentional opening and closing actions.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
The solution achieves a practically unchanged braking effect and stabilization of the door over its service life, allowing the door to be held in position without opening or closing, especially between 15° and 65°, with a load-bearing capacity of at least 150 N, and is compact and durable.
Implementation Method 1
a friction device for inhibiting movement of the hinge arm... the cartridge can be pressed against at least one of the two housing cheeks by means of the spring element
Implementation Method 2
the cartridge has a spring element in its expansion
Data Source
Figure 1
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Figure 3
AI summary
The invention relates to a domestic-appliance hinge (3) having a hinge arm (7) for connecting to a domestic-appliance door (2), a hinge housing (4) having two lateral housing sidewalls (4a, 4b), which hinge arm (7) is rotatably connected to the hinge housing (4) at a first axis of rotation (D1), and a friction device for inhibiting motion of the hinge arm (7), wherein the friction device has a variable-length cartridge (21), which has a spring element (23) for extending the cartridge (21), is accommodated in the hinge housing (4) between the housing sidewalls (4a, 4b), can be moved along with the hinge arm (7), and can be pressed against at least one of the two housing sidewalls (4a, 4b) by means of the spring element (23). A domestic appliance (1) has a treatment chamber (10) having a loading opening (9) and has a pivotable door (2) for closing the loading opening (9), which door is connected to the rest of the domestic appliance (1) by means of domestic-appliance hinges (3). The invention can be especially advantageously applied to domestic appliances that have a baking oven, for example to stand-alone baking ovens or ranges.