Fluid-Damped Door Hinge for Soft Closing Without High User Effort
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing hinges for compartment-covering doors, such as oven doors, often cause impacts against the compartment structure due to sudden door closure, and require unusual user effort to operate comfortably, especially when using fluidic dampers that increase resistance excessively near the end-of-travel position.
Innovation Solution
A hinge design incorporating a fluidically operated cylinder and piston damper with internal flow leakage, combined with movement guide means like a cam-follower system and elastic means like a helical torsion spring, to adjust resistance smoothly and prevent impacts during opening and closing, allowing for user-friendly operation without excessive force requirements.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of operation
If a spring is configured to counteract the opening of the door by collapsing from the zero position, then the spring facilitates door closing, but the thrust given by the spring can impress considerable speed to the door rotation, causing impacts against the compartment structure
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces a fluidic damper as an intermediary element between the spring and the door mechanism. The damper's piston and cylinder system with internal flow leakage paths moderates the spring's thrust, converting the sudden force into a controlled, gradual motion that prevents impact while maintaining the door-closing facilitation effect
Solution Approach 2:
The patent changes the physical parameters of the damping system by using fluid viscosity and internal flow resistance to control the rate of motion. The fluidic damper transforms the high-speed, high-force spring action into a low-speed, controlled motion through parameter adjustment of fluid flow characteristics
2Object-affected harmful factors
If fluidic dampers are used to adjust door movement, then impacts are prevented, but the resistance increases excessively near the end-of-travel position, requiring unusual user effort to operate
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies local quality by creating different flow resistance characteristics at different positions of the piston travel. The internal flow leakage paths are designed to provide moderate resistance during most of the travel but reduce resistance near the end-of-travel position, ensuring impact prevention without excessive user effort
Solution Approach 2:
The damping resistance is made dynamic rather than static. The fluidic damper's internal flow characteristics change automatically with piston position, providing adaptive resistance that is high when needed for impact prevention but low when user operation is required, creating a naturally varying damping effect
3Productivity
If the piston moves quickly through the cylinder, then door closure is fast, but impacts occur against the compartment structure
Solution Approach 1:
The patent uses a fluidic (pneumatic/hydraulic) damper system to control piston motion. The fluid's incompressibility and viscosity naturally limit the piston's acceleration and maximum speed, converting rapid mechanical motion into a controlled, gradual movement that prevents impact while maintaining reasonable closure speed
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 hinge effectively prevents door impacts against the compartment structure during both opening and closing, ensuring a slow and continuous movement, reducing user effort and maintaining comfortable operation by adjusting resistance through internal flow leakage and spring action.
Implementation Method 1
elastic means that are interposed between the moving element and the hinge support relative to which this moving element is moving
Implementation Method 2
balance, at least partially, the weight of the door during the rotation thereof, both in the direction opposing to the gravity force
Implementation Method 3
at least one fluidic damper, of the cylinder and piston type, in which the piston is constrained, either directly or indirectly, to said first support
Data Source
Figure 1
Figure 2
Figure 3a~3c
AI summary
A hinge (1) for a door opening over a horizontal axis, of the type comprising first and second supports (2, 3) that can be fixed to a compartment structure and to a door, at least rotatably constrained to each other through a pin (10). The hinge (1) comprises a fluidic cylinder-piston damper (9) of the type with internal flow leakage of the fluid contained therein. The damper (9) has a piston (18, 19) with a through-hole (20). The piston (18, 19) can have an appendix (19) that non-sealingly engages a chamber (17) when the door is closed, to increase the dampening. The hinge (1) has elastic means (7) such as a spring, to counteract the falling movement of the door when it is opened. The hinge (1) can be of the cam type, with a cam (4) and an abutment (5).