Foldable Display Housing with Segmented Wing Portions
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional display devices with foldable designs face challenges in creating a continuous, viewable display across multiple orientations, particularly in achieving a 360-degree open position without gaps and maintaining structural integrity for repeated folding cycles.
Innovation Solution
The implementation of a foldable display housing with multiple hinge assemblies that allow the display panel to fold from 0 to 360 degrees, utilizing magnetic materials for attraction and elastomeric components to distribute stress, and offsetting bending axes to reduce strain on the display panel, enabling a continuous front and back facing viewable display.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Area of moving object
If the display panel is made foldable to increase display area, then the viewable display area is improved, but the structural integrity and reliability deteriorate due to stress concentration at folding points
Solution Approach 1:
The display panel is divided into multiple segments including a base portion, wing portions, and intermediate portions that can fold independently. Multiple hinge assemblies are distributed at different locations to create segmented folding zones, which distributes stress across multiple points rather than concentrating it at a single folding point, thereby maintaining structural integrity while expanding the viewable display area.
Solution Approach 2:
The display panel utilizes composite material construction with a flexible substrate layer, display layer, and protective layers that can withstand repeated folding. The composite structure includes materials with different mechanical properties that work together to provide both flexibility for folding and strength for maintaining structural integrity during folding cycles.
2Adaptability or versatility
If multiple hinge assemblies are added to enable 360-degree folding, then the adaptability and versatility are improved, but the device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The hinge assemblies are designed with universal functionality to enable multiple folding orientations (0 degrees, 180 degrees, and 360 degrees). Each hinge assembly can accommodate various angular positions, allowing the display panel to serve multiple functions including front-facing display, back-facing display, and various intermediate configurations, thereby reducing the need for separate mechanisms for each orientation.
Solution Approach 2:
The hinge assemblies incorporate dynamic characteristics that allow smooth transitions between different folding positions. The hinges can rotate through a full 360-degree range and maintain stable positions at various angles, enabling the display to dynamically adapt to different usage scenarios while keeping the mechanism relatively simple through continuous rotational capability rather than discrete position locking.
3Area of moving object
If the wing portions are made longer to form continuous display, then the viewable display area is improved, but the stress on the display panel increases during folding
Solution Approach 1:
The wing portions are divided into multiple segments with intermediate portions between them and the base portion. This segmentation allows the long display area to be achieved while distributing the bending stress across multiple shorter folding sections rather than one long continuous fold, reducing the stress concentration on any single point of the display panel.
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
This design provides a robust and flexible display solution that maintains structural integrity across multiple folding cycles, ensuring a continuous viewable display area greater than the base housing footprint, suitable for various tasks and applications, including gaming and virtual reality.
Implementation Method 1
utilizing magnetic materials for attraction
Implementation Method 2
utilizing magnetic materials for attraction and elastomeric components to distribute stress
Data Source
AI summary
A device can include a processor; memory accessible to the processor; a base housing; a display housing that includes a front side, a back side and a display panel on the front side that spans an intermediate portion and wing portions of the display housing, where the wing portions fold over the front side of the intermediate portion, where the wing portions open to form a continuous front facing viewable display, and where the wing portions open and fold over the back side of the intermediate portion and meet to form a substantially continuous back facing viewable display; and a hinge assembly that couples the display housing to the base housing.