Eyewear Hinge Assembly With Welded Anchor Plate For Load Distribution
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing hinge mechanisms for electronic devices, particularly in eyewear, fail to adequately withstand torsional and tensile loading while maintaining a watertight seal and effective thermal management, often leading to damage of housing components made of polymeric plastics.
Innovation Solution
A hinge assembly comprising a metal hinge member with an anchor plate welded to a housing wall, providing rotational and axial fastening, sealed with an O-ring, and clamped by a securing screw, ensuring structural integrity and thermal conductivity through a metal-to-metal connection.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of manufacture
If a hinge mechanism is mounted on a polymeric housing wall, then the device can achieve flexibility and ease of manufacture, but the housing wall cannot withstand torsional and tensile loading without damage
Solution Approach 1:
The housing assembly is segmented into multiple components: a housing wall, an anchor plate, and a hinge member. The hinge member is further divided into a hinge post and a hinge formation. This segmentation allows the load-bearing functions to be distributed across separate elements, with the metal hinge member and anchor plate specifically designed to handle torsional and tensile loads that would be too great for the polymeric housing wall alone.
Solution Approach 2:
The invention employs composite construction by combining different materials with complementary properties. The housing wall is made of polymeric material for ease of manufacture and sealing, while the hinge member and anchor plate are made of metal for high strength and load-bearing capacity. This composite approach allows each material to contribute its optimal properties to the overall structure.
2Reliability
If the hinge mounting is sealed to protect electronics from moisture, then environmental protection is improved, but the structural integrity under loading is compromised
Solution Approach 1:
The sealing function is segmented from the structural load-bearing function. The O-ring seal is a separate component that provides environmental protection, while the metal hinge member and anchor plate provide structural strength. This segmentation allows the sealing element to be optimized for moisture protection without compromising the load-bearing capacity of the structural elements.
Solution Approach 2:
The O-ring acts as an intermediary sealing element between the hinge member assembly and the housing wall. This intermediary component provides the watertight seal while allowing the metal hinge member and anchor plate to handle the mechanical loading independently, thus resolving the contradiction between sealing and structural integrity.
3Strength
If a metal hinge member is used for strength, then load-bearing capacity is improved, but thermal management becomes more difficult with polymeric housing
Solution Approach 1:
The invention applies local quality by making the hinge member and anchor plate (the local load-bearing components) metallic to provide both high strength and thermal conductivity. The polymeric housing wall maintains its insulating properties where needed, but the localized metal components create thermal pathways for heat dissipation from electronic components through the hinge assembly to the environment.
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
Enhances structural integrity by distributing tensile and torsional loads over a larger area, maintains a watertight seal, and facilitates effective heat dissipation, improving the reliability and durability of electronic devices.
Implementation Method 1
an O-ring seal engaged on the hinge post and in sealing engagement with both the hinge post and the housing wall
Implementation Method 2
facilitates effective heat dissipation, improving the reliability and durability of electronic devices
Data Source
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AI summary
A hinge assembly mounted on a housing of form part of an electronic device includes a metal hinge member having a hinge post that extends through a mounting hole in a wall of the housing, the hinge post being connected to a metal anchor plate on an inner side of the housing wall to be rotationally and axially fast with the anchor plate. The anchor plate may has an area multiple times the size of a footprint of the hinge member, with fastening the hinge post and the anchor plate in some embodiments being by a welded connection.