Foldable Support Plate Structure for Thin Yet Rigid Terminals
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Solution Overview
Problem
Foldable terminals face reduced strength and reliability due to the design of support plates being light and thin, which compromises the overall strength of the foldable mechanism.
Innovation Solution
A foldable mechanism with an integrally formed support plate that is fixedly mounted on a base, featuring sliding and rotating connections, reinforcement ribs, and stopping mechanisms to enhance strength and rigidity while maintaining a light and thin design.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Weight of moving object
If the support plate is designed to be light and thin, then the foldable terminal achieves light and thin design, but the strength of the support plate is reduced
Solution Approach 1:
The support plate transitions from a two-dimensional thin plate to a three-dimensional structured component by adding reinforcement ribs that protrude from the plate surface. This dimensional change allows the plate to maintain thin overall thickness while incorporating volume-based structural strength through the ribs, resolving the contradiction between being light/thin and having sufficient strength.
Solution Approach 2:
Instead of uniformly thickening the entire support plate, reinforcement ribs are strategically positioned at specific locations where structural support is most needed. This localized quality enhancement provides strength exactly where required while maintaining the light and thin design in other areas, optimizing the balance between weight and strength.
2Weight of moving object
If the support plate is designed to be light and thin, then the foldable terminal achieves light and thin design, but the overall strength of the foldable mechanism is reduced
Solution Approach 1:
The foldable mechanism incorporates reinforcement ribs that extend vertically from the support plate, transforming the mechanism from a planar structure to a three-dimensional structure. This dimensional change enables the mechanism to maintain a thin profile while gaining structural strength through the added vertical dimension of the ribs.
Solution Approach 2:
The reinforcement ribs are integrated directly into the support plate as an integral structure rather than being separate components. This merging of the support plate and reinforcement elements creates a unified structural system that provides both the light/thin design and the necessary overall strength for the foldable mechanism.
3Weight of moving object
If the support plate is designed to be light and thin, then the foldable terminal achieves light and thin design, but use reliability of the foldable mechanism is reduced
Solution Approach 1:
By adding reinforcement ribs in the vertical dimension, the support plate achieves sufficient structural rigidity and stability to ensure reliable operation of the foldable mechanism during folding and unfolding cycles, while maintaining the light and thin overall design.
Solution Approach 2:
Reinforcement ribs are positioned at critical locations where stress and load are concentrated during folding operations. This localized quality enhancement ensures reliability at the most vulnerable points without adding unnecessary weight or thickness throughout the entire structure.
Data Source
AI summary
A foldable mechanism and a foldable terminal. A support plate is an integrally formed structural member, so that overall strength and rigidity of the support plate can be ensured while light and thin design of the foldable mechanism is implemented, thereby ensuring overall strength of the foldable mechanism, and improving use reliability of the foldable mechanism. In addition, the support plate is fixedly mounted on a base, so that the support plate does not float up or down relative to the base as the foldable mechanism moves. Therefore, the support plate can always provide a display with strong support, and a support area and support force of the foldable mechanism for the display can be increased, thereby improving pressing and touching experience of a user on the display, and further improving anti-fall and anti-impact reliability of the display.