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concealed door hinge

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Concealed door hinges are elegant. They use sturdy pivoted linkages to connect the door to the door frame. The first commercially successful concealed door hinge was disclosed in US 3,001,224 (see link).

I have designed my own concealed door hinge. Instead of using pivoted linkages, it uses ring segments that are coupled via ball bearings (see illustrations). Hopefully fairly self- explanatory.

xaviergisz, May 17 2020

US 3,001,224 https://patents.goo...24A/en?oq=US3001224
[xaviergisz, May 17 2020]

illustration 1 https://i.imgur.com/Nj2oIRN.png
[xaviergisz, May 17 2020]

illustration 2 https://i.imgur.com/PZlMklP.png
[xaviergisz, May 17 2020]

illustration 3 https://i.imgur.com/gvAtl17.png
[xaviergisz, May 17 2020]

Maxwell Buchanan's amazing butterfly hinge idea. Betterfly_20Hinge
This still needs to be done. Public domain now but so what? It's great. [doctorremulac3, May 17 2020]

Door_20Teeth [xenzag, May 18 2020]

possibilities https://youtu.be/mrjmFiYC-XM
some lubrication spaces, angle changes will be needed due to door weight. [wjt, May 23 2020]

[link]






       Very good [+].... and the aspect that makes it a halfbaked idea is ??
xenzag, May 17 2020
  

       Beautiful design and patentable. Great illustration as well, very cool!
doctorremulac3, May 17 2020
  

       As [Max] usually said, it would have been patentable if it hadn't been published here first.
pocmloc, May 17 2020
  

       Elegant is right. In fact, that makes me think that those would have been something Frank Lloyd Wright would have liked. His specialty was concealing everything. Good to see you [xaviergisz] as well.
blissmiss, May 17 2020
  

       Not the case, you have 12 months from when you publish an idea to to patent it. Not sure if that rule has changed but that's what it has been.   

       I'd start with a search, use "Google patents", don't bother with the government website, it's a mess. (surprise).   

       Then spend about a hundred bucks for the "provisional patent". This registers priority on your timeline. You'll have to refer to this public publishing of the idea but that only helps to establish the time it was conseptualized by you.   

       Then you have 12 months from THAT point to put in your official patent application, the one that gets reviewed and either approved or denied.   

       Good luck, keep us posted. I woud'nt let this one get away, it's very clever.
doctorremulac3, May 17 2020
  

       OK well I know nothing.   

       How do you get the wee balls in?
pocmloc, May 17 2020
  

       And we're sure the top and bottom hinges woudln't move relative to each other on the vertical axis? Seems like it should be OK.   

       If there is an issue, adding a row of balls rather than just the singles should stablize it.   

       And you could also put a bit of an angle on the ramps so the door would close automatically. So the path is flat until the door clears the frame, they it gently slopes up so the weight of the door pulls it back down.   

       Put a plateau on the end of the ramp so it'll stay there until you nudge it back.   

       Let me know if you want to partner up on this. Your idea with these two tweaks might be the bomb.   

       80/20 split? You get the big chunk for the main idea, 20 for me for the self closing, hold open feature?
doctorremulac3, May 17 2020
  

       I love your illustrations. [+]
Voice, May 17 2020
  

       No doubt, the colors are even awesome.   

       As far as the plateaus, you could have multiple ones to hold the door open at two different openings 3/4 of the way open and all the way open. Put a little dip in the path to hold them in place.   

       Not sure it that would be necessary but you could do that.   

       The last amazing door hinge idea to be put up here was by the amazing Maxwell Buchanan. (link) That still needs to be done.   

       Whatever you do Xav, you really should follow up with this. Great idea.   

       And if you don't want me barging in on your idea, I completely understand, I'd just like to see you do this because it's a great idea.
doctorremulac3, May 17 2020
  

       My son got his finger squashed in the door hinge last week which inspired this idea. Thankfully he has recovered without lasting injury (but with a new healthy respect for door hinges).   

       I wanted a door hinge that was covered so fingers couldn't get in. This design could be finessed to achieve better safety.   

       The improvements suggested are great, particularly the self-closing idea.   

       Re: patent. I have started the clock ticking on the grace period to apply for a patent. I would need to get it prototyped first. It is tempting, but I would estimate it would require a $10k investment to do it properly.   

       I'm actually thinking of getting another of my ideas prototyped with the view to getting a patent. It took a lot of restraint not to post the idea on Halfbakery. If anyone is a mechanical engineer who can design gears travelling on a non-linear rack, let me know.
xaviergisz, May 17 2020
  

       // Not sure it that would be necessary but you could do that   

       Are we still doing [marked-for-tagline]?
tatterdemalion, May 17 2020
  

       Love the illustration. I like the concept but you'll need something to keep any grit from getting under those bearings.   

       //This idea literally has a fingertip remover in the design. Look at the images where the square holes open up just ready for a toddler lying on the floor to slip a pinky in.//   

       Oh, yow! I didn't see that, I assumed they went all the way back without leaving a space.   

       Yea Xav, those gaps gotta be closed, those aren't finger pinchers, those are finger choppers. Unless you left the gaps just for for illustration, in that case never mind.   

       Hey Big, I was thinking of just adding more balls. Then you preserve the nice rolling supports to make the door move smoothly. Replace the balls and you get a lot of friction. Another factor is you're going to need a lot of these hinges to have any strength. With only a couple, you've got a whole door being held from falling off by a few ball bearings.   

       Maybe one continuous rod going through all the members where the balls are shown would give it the strength to hold together. Perhaps curved to match the slots.   

       Can you animate the 3D illustration you did Xav?
doctorremulac3, May 18 2020
  

       Hmmm, "finger choppers", now there's a new use for a door if I ever heard of one. Tooth pulling device, yes, digit destroyers...nahhh... that's a new one.
blissmiss, May 18 2020
  

       //Yea Xav, those gaps gotta be closed, those aren't finger pinchers, those are finger choppers. Unless you left the gaps just for for illustration, in that case never mind.//   

       Yep, gaps left for illustration purposes; the hinge can be designed such that the ring segments extend into the slots for the door swinging between 0 to almost 90°. It can also be designed for further rotation (with ring segments safely in the slots), but this would require bits protruding from the door.   

       //Hey Big, I was thinking of just adding more balls. Then you preserve the nice rolling supports to make the door move smoothly. Replace the balls and you get a lot of friction. Another factor is you're going to need a lot of these hinges to have any strength. With only a couple, you've got a whole door being held from falling off by a few ball bearings.//   

       Yep, again for illustrative purposes I only had one ball bearing at each ring segment interface. Multiple ball bearings in bearing cages could be used.
xaviergisz, May 18 2020
  

       //Let me know if you want to partner up on this. Your idea with these two tweaks might be the bomb.   

       80/20 split? You get the big chunk for the main idea, 20 for me for the self closing, hold open feature?//   

       Sounds like a great deal to me. Seriously, if you want talk about prototyping etc. send me an email.
xaviergisz, May 18 2020
  

       //.. that's a new one.// [bliss] see Door Teeth link for another use for the ability of hinges to grip anything placed in their path.
xenzag, May 18 2020
  

       //Sounds like a great deal to me. Seriously, if you want talk about prototyping etc. send me an email.//   

       Sounds like fun, I've got a 3D printer. :)
doctorremulac3, May 18 2020
  

       Funny xen wasn't thinking that kind of door thingy, I was thinking the stringy kind, but hey, we now have 3 uses. Well, 4 if you count opening the door.
blissmiss, May 18 2020
  

       //grab a mechanical engineer for a few hours. I'm sure he'd advise this design has 3 major weak points, and to get any where near success you'd need some expensive aerospace alloys.//   

       That's what all the mechanical engineers I know say about absolutely everything. They hear "Special Project" and start thinking for a moment that they in the 1960's Skunk works, they do calculations using some exotic metal matrix titanium alloy and get a nice thrill.   

       I blame customers, they're always whining about the price which means practically everything ends up being made of some humdrum steel. Almost like civil engineering.
bs0u0155, May 18 2020
  

       I dig it.
21 Quest, May 21 2020
  
      
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