SuperYacht Type B Hinge

Last crawled date: 1 year, 11 months ago

Design for a hinge / damper mechanism.

Constructed from stainless steel. Hinge is filled with a dilatant ( shear thickening ) fluid, which thickens with increased force. This will allow door to be opened closed at a reasonable speed by people walking through whilst still controlling door during wind gusts.

Allowable door opening angles are controlled by placement of internal vanes. The speed of opening / closing (and the response curve, which is non-linear ) is dictated by the composition of the dilatent fluid, and the available area for the fluid to move around the vanes. An adjustment plate is provided to allow in-situ adjustment of the damper. To reduce the damping applied, the adjustment plate is lowered, thereby increasing clearance around the rotating vane, making it easier for the fluid to flow around the vane.

As the inside of the hinge/damper is entirely filled with fluid, movement of the adjustment plate does not change the volume available for the fluid storage. Also, the gap between the damper body and the adjuster plate is sized so that the effort required to displace fluid from under the plate to above is greater than the effort applied by the door to the fluid above the plate, thus not moving the adjuster plate.

The same principle can also be applied to the Type A hinge mechanism