Compact Furniture Hinge With Integrated Damper And Intermediate Piece
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing furniture hinges with damping functions face challenges in achieving a compact design while maintaining functionality, often resulting in complex assembly, increased size, and safety risks due to transverse forces affecting the damper's operation.
Innovation Solution
A furniture hinge design where the damper is integrated between the intermediate piece and guide lever, with the piston rod running parallel to the hinge housing, allowing for a compact structure and easy assembly, and featuring a cantilevered piston rod to minimize transverse forces, using a cylindrical damper with pins for secure mounting and a spring for biased closure.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If the damper is fixed to the hinge housing, then the damping function is achieved, but transverse forces affect the functionality of the damper and the hinge housing cannot be reused for other hinges
Solution Approach 1:
The damper is separated from the hinge housing by introducing an intermediate piece. The intermediate piece serves as a separate mounting component that connects the damper to the hinge mechanism, allowing the housing to remain universal while the damper gains proper mounting support. This segmentation resolves the conflict between achieving reliable damping and maintaining housing versatility.
2Reliability
If the damper volume is made available by increasing hinge arm height, then the damping function is achieved, but the hinge size increases and complexity increases due to additional deflection levers
Solution Approach 1:
Instead of increasing the hinge arm height to accommodate the damper, the intermediate piece is positioned in the spatial gap between the support lever and guide lever axes. This utilizes the existing three-dimensional space efficiently, allowing the damper to be integrated without increasing the overall hinge envelope dimensions.
3Volume of moving object
If the piston rod is arranged to run parallel to the hinge housing for compact design, then the hinge size is reduced, but transverse forces may affect the damper operation
Solution Approach 1:
The intermediate piece acts as an intermediary component between the piston rod and the hinge housing. It provides a dedicated mounting location that properly aligns the piston rod while absorbing and directing forces, thereby protecting the damper from harmful transverse forces even when the piston rod runs parallel to the housing for compact design.
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 solution provides a compact, easily assembled hinge with reduced risk of injury and efficient damping, ensuring smooth opening and effective closure with minimal additional components, maintaining functionality across various installation scenarios.
Implementation Method 1
a damping element being mounted on the hinge. The damping element has its own housing and a piston rod which can be moved relative to the housing
Implementation Method 2
The damper has a preferably cylindrical housing on which laterally protruding pins are formed which engage in openings on the first hinge part
Data Source
Figure 1
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AI summary
A furniture hinge (1) comprises a mounting plate (2) on which a first hinge part (16) is fixed via an intermediate piece (3), and a second hinge part (4) which is arranged pivotably relative to the first hinge part (16) and is coupled to a supporting lever (7) and a guide lever (9) in the manner of a parallel linkage. The guide lever (9) is coupled to a damper (12) with a piston rod (20), wherein the piston rod (20) is movable along its longitudinal axis in a direction which runs between an axis (8) of the supporting lever (7) and an axis (10) of the guide lever (9) on the first hinge part (16). Furthermore, the damper (12) is arranged in a direction along the piston rod (20) between the intermediate piece (3) and the guide lever (9). This results in a compact construction of the hinge.