Reversible Appliance Door Hinge for Confined Installation Spaces
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current rotary-drum washing machines and driers have a fixed door hinge position, limiting their adaptability to different installation spaces, often resulting in the door being unable to fully open in confined or overfurnished areas.
Innovation Solution
A two-axis hinge system with reversible anchoring plates and a U-shaped connecting rod allows the door to rotate freely and be positioned on either side of the opening, enabling the door to be fully opened regardless of the hinge's initial placement, using easily removable anchoring plates and a spring mechanism to maintain the open position.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Adaptability or versatility
If the door hinge is fixed at a specific position during appliance design and assembly, then the manufacturing and assembly process is simplified, but the appliance cannot be adapted to different installation spaces and the door may not be able to fully open in confined areas
Solution Approach 1:
The door hinge system is divided into separate components: a first anchoring plate fixed to the door, a second anchoring plate that can be positioned at multiple locations on the box casing, and a connecting rod with pivot joints. This segmentation allows the hinge to be reconfigured by changing the position of the second anchoring plate while keeping the door-mounted component fixed.
Solution Approach 2:
The hinge system transitions from a static, fixed-position design to a dynamic, reconfigurable system. The second anchoring plate can be removed and repositioned to different locations on the box casing, allowing the door swing arc and opening position to be adjusted based on installation space constraints.
2Ease of operation
If the door hinge is positioned to the right of the loading and unloading opening, then the appliance can be assembled in a standard configuration, but the door cannot be fully opened in highly confined and overfurnished spaces where space is limited on the right side
Solution Approach 1:
The hinge system allows inversion of the door swing direction by repositioning the second anchoring plate to the opposite side of the opening. Instead of the door always swinging to the right, the anchoring plate can be moved to enable the door to swing to the left, effectively using the opposite configuration to solve the space constraint problem.
3Ease of manufacture
If the door hinge position is determined at the appliance design stage, then the manufacturing process is simplified with fixed components, but the appliance cannot be easily reconfigured for different installation environments
Solution Approach 1:
The hinge is segmented into a door-mounted anchoring plate and a casing-mounted anchoring plate connected by a pivotable rod. This allows the casing-mounted plate to be independently repositioned without replacing the entire hinge assembly, maintaining manufacturing simplicity while enabling reconfiguration.
Data Source
AI summary
An electric household appliance (1) having an outer box casing (2), in turn having, on the front face (2a), an opening (3) for access to the inside of the appliance; and a door (4) fixed to the box casing (2) by a hinge (5) located close to the peripheral edge (3a) of the opening (3) and designed to allow the door (4) to rotate to and from a closed position, in which the body of the door (4) rests on the front face (2a) of the box casing (2), thus closing the opening (3); the hinge (5) of the door (4) is designed to selectively and alternatively fit to the box casing (2) firmly, but in easily removable manner, in two distinct positions on opposite sides of the front opening (3) of said household appliance (1).