Elliptical Gear Hinge Assemblies for Synchronized Pivoting
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing hinge technologies for computing and display devices face challenges in smoothly pivoting and orienting housings with different thicknesses, leading to potential mechanical failures and user discomfort due to inadequate gear designs that fail to ensure synchronized motion and finger safety.
Innovation Solution
The use of elliptical gears with specific dimensions and couplers that maintain a constant distance, allowing for smooth rolling and engagement without separation, and the incorporation of worm gears with helical teeth to ensure synchronized motion and prevent finger pinch, along with additional features like plates to prevent objects from getting caught during rotation.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Adaptability or versatility
If conventional hinge mechanisms are used to pivot housings with different thicknesses, then the hinge can accommodate the thickness difference, but the motion becomes unsynchronized and mechanical failures occur
Solution Approach 1:
The patent employs asymmetric gear design where at least one gear is non-circular (e.g., elliptical or having variable radius). This asymmetric geometry allows the gears to maintain proper engagement and synchronized motion while accommodating housings of different thicknesses, resolving the contradiction between adaptability and reliability.
Solution Approach 2:
The gear parameters (radius, tooth profile, engagement points) are specifically designed to vary along the gear perimeter. This parameter variation enables the mechanism to adapt to different housing thicknesses while maintaining synchronized motion, preventing mechanical failures.
2Device complexity
If standard gear designs are used for hinge mechanisms, then the structure remains simple, but finger pinch hazards and object entrapment occur during rotation
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces intermediate elements such as guards, covers, or safety plates that mediate between the gear teeth and the external environment. These intermediaries prevent direct access to the gear engagement zone, eliminating finger pinch and object entrapment hazards while maintaining relatively simple gear structures.
Solution Approach 2:
Safety features are designed to preemptively counteract potential harmful actions by preventing fingers or objects from reaching the hazard zone before entrapment can occur. Guards and covers are positioned to block access to the gear mesh area throughout the entire rotation cycle.
3Reliability
If gears are designed to mesh for synchronized motion, then housing orientation is controlled, but the gears may separate during rotation causing mechanical failure
Solution Approach 1:
The patent employs curved or elliptical gear geometries instead of traditional circular gears. This curvature allows the gear teeth to maintain continuous contact and proper engagement throughout the rotation cycle, preventing separation while ensuring synchronized motion for housing orientation control.
Solution Approach 2:
The gear design incorporates dynamic adaptation where the engagement parameters change during rotation to maintain optimal contact. The variable geometry of the gears automatically adjusts the meshing points to prevent separation under varying operational conditions.
Data Source
AI summary
An apparatus can include a processor; memory accessible by the processor; a first housing that includes a front side and a back side and a thickness therebetween; a second housing that includes a front side and a back side and a thickness therebetween; a first gear operatively coupled to the first housing; and a second gear operatively coupled to the second housing where the first and second gears mesh to orient the first and second housings in a front side to front side orientation and in a back side to back side orientation.