Hinged Bendable Glass for Continuous Vehicle Interior Displays
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing glass materials in vehicle interiors face challenges in integrating display screens into continuous surfaces while meeting aesthetic and functional requirements, particularly in terms of bending and impact resistance.
Innovation Solution
A bendable glass article with a hinge and encapsulating material that allows for rotation between configurations, incorporating display screens and enhancing edge protection, with customizable rotational and translational stiffness for improved impact resistance.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Shape
If glass is used to form continuous surfaces in vehicle interiors, then aesthetic design and functionality are enhanced, but design challenges increase compared to conventional materials
Solution Approach 1:
The glass article is divided into multiple sections by incorporating hinges that create movable joints. This segmentation allows the continuous glass surface to be broken into manageable segments that can be assembled and configured more easily, reducing the overall design complexity while maintaining the aesthetic continuous surface appearance.
Solution Approach 2:
The glass article incorporates movable hinges that enable dynamic configuration changes. The glass panels can be adjusted between different angular positions, transforming a static design challenge into a dynamic solution that adapts to various interior design requirements while maintaining structural integrity.
2Adaptability or versatility
If glass sheets are made bendable with hinges, then adaptability and configuration options increase, but structural complexity and manufacturing difficulty increase
Solution Approach 1:
The hinge mechanism is integrated directly into the glass article structure, merging the hinge components with the glass panels themselves. This integration eliminates the need for separate hinge assemblies and complex mounting procedures, thereby increasing configuration options while simplifying the manufacturing process.
Solution Approach 2:
The glass article uses composite construction with glass panels combined with hinge mechanisms and encapsulating materials. This composite approach allows the flexible, adaptable configuration while maintaining ease of manufacture through standardized composite component production and assembly.
3Strength
If encapsulating material is molded around the glass sheet, then edge protection and impact resistance improve, but manufacturing process complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The encapsulating material is molded in a single integrated process that simultaneously protects the glass edges and incorporates the hinge mechanisms. This merging of protective and structural functions into one manufacturing step improves impact resistance while avoiding the need for separate manufacturing operations, thereby reducing overall process complexity.
Data Source
AI summary
A glass article for a vehicle interior system (10). The glass article includes a glass sheet having first and second major surfaces with a minor surface connecting the first and second major surfaces. The glass sheet has a first side and a second side. A hinge is disposed on the second major surface of the glass sheet. The hinge divides the glass sheet between the first side and the second side. An encapsulating material is molded at least partially around the minor surface and at least partially over the second major surface. The second side of the glass sheet rotates about the hinge from a first configuration to a second configuration. In the first configuration, the first side forms a first angle with the second side, and in the second configuration, the first side forms a second angle, different from the first angle, with the second side.