Built-In Dishwasher Door Hinge Layout to Clear Cabinet Side Walls
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Solution Overview
Problem
Dishwashers designed for built-in cabinets face challenges in fitting within limited installation spaces while maintaining a uniform front appearance, often requiring complex and expensive hinge solutions or trailing doors to cover side walls, which complicate installation and sealing.
Innovation Solution
A dishwasher with a stationary axis and coordinated door design that allows the door to pivot away from the installation section, avoiding collisions with side walls, and incorporates a fixed plinth panel to cover the side walls, simplifying the structural design and sealing, with a cover section to prevent water and dirt ingress.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Shape
If the door width is increased to cover the end faces of side walls, then the uniform front appearance is improved, but the door collides with side walls during pivoting
Solution Approach 1:
The patent positions the door pivot axis in front of the installation section, extending beyond the delimitation plane of the installation space. This spatial repositioning allows the door to pivot in an extended arc that clears the side walls while maintaining full coverage of the end faces when closed, resolving the collision issue without compromising appearance.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent introduces a stationary axis positioned outside the installation section as an intermediary element. This fixed pivot point serves as a mediator that enables the door to achieve both its aesthetic coverage function and its operational clearance from side walls, eliminating the need for complex movable hinge systems.
2Object-affected harmful factors
If a movable lever arrangement is used to position the axis, then the door can avoid side walls, but the structural complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
Instead of making the axis movable to avoid side walls, the patent inverts the approach by making the axis stationary and positioned outside the installation section. This inversion simplifies the hinge system to a fixed pivot point while still achieving collision avoidance through the door's extended pivoting arc.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent extracts the axis from the installation section and positions it outside, in front of the delimitation plane. This separation removes the complexity of movable lever arrangements while maintaining the door's ability to clear side walls during operation.
3Shape
If the axis is positioned in the lower area of the loading opening, then the door can cover end faces, but sealing becomes more difficult
Solution Approach 1:
By positioning the axis in front of the installation section rather than within it, the patent creates additional spatial dimension for the door's pivoting motion. This allows the door to maintain better sealing contact with the installation section while still covering the end faces, as the door's path clears the side walls without requiring complex sealing mechanisms.
Data Source
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AI summary
The invention relates to a dishwasher to be installed in an installing area (ER) of a built-in cabinet (ES), bounded by side walls (SW). The dishwasher has an installation section (2), which is provided for disposing it in the installing area (ER), and a door (6, 6') for closing a dishwasher loading opening (5). The door (6, 6') can be swiveled about a horizontal axis (10), which is disposed at the lower area (11) of the loading opening (5) in a swivel range (12) between a closed position (6) and an open position (6') and protrudes in its width (b1) over the installation section (2), so that, when the dishwasher is installed as intended, the door (6, 6 '), when in the closed position (6), covers at least a portion of a front side (STS) of said side wall (SW). The axis (10) is disposed to be stationary. The axis (10) and the construction of the door (6, 6') are matched to one another, so that, when the door (6, 6’) is swiveled over the whole of its range (12), a part (7') of the door (6, 6'), protruding over the installing section (2) in the lateral direction, is moved to a side of a boundary plane (3), which is facing away from the installation section (2) and forms the boundary of the installation section (2) on the side of the loading opening (5).