Terry is an equipment structural engineer from Canada, and in his daily work, he is required to do complex structural and cosmetic designs. This requires him to deal with many details, one of which is the design of the doors.
In the door design process, he needs to consider the opening angle of the door, the weight of the door, and even the aesthetics of the door. This will ensure that the equipment as a whole looks coordinated and cool.
So Terry had to consider an important part of the door design process, which is the butt hinges. The hinge plays a role in connecting the door to the door frame and needs to have sufficient load-bearing properties.
What Terry needs to do
First, Terry needs to know what the opening angle of the door is to determine the size of the angle at which the butt hinge needs to open. If the door only needs to open at a relatively small angle, then an ordinary butt hinge can meet the requirements.
if the door needs to open at a large angle, then the opening angle of the hinge also needs to be large accordingly. For example, if a drawer is installed inside some equipment, the door may need to be opened to 180 degrees or even 270 degrees. This way the drawer will not be blocked by the door when it is pulled out.
There is a special case in which the door only needs to open to one or more fixed angles, such as sometimes needing to open the door to 60 degrees of the opening angle, and sometimes needing to open the door to 90 degrees of the angle. It is like the door of a small car that opens in sections.
This issue was already considered by Terry at the beginning, so the decision process was relatively quick.
Another thing to consider is the overall aesthetics; Terry always wants to design products that are practical and cool, and each product is designed with as much care as if it were one of his own children.
To find a suitable butt hinge, Terry may need to go through the following steps.
Find ready-made butt hinges
First, of course, he wants to look at the existing supplier system. If you can find it is the most time-saving and labor-saving. And also a familiar supplier with easy and timely delivery. This is the solution in our understanding.
But many times it doesn’t always work out as expected, especially if there are special requirements for the product. Maybe the off-the-shelf product can achieve the required function, but it does not negotiate with the equipment as a whole and is not aesthetically pleasing. Maybe the size is right, but the structure is not what we need. The cost of modifying an off-the-shelf product is about the same as redesigning and producing a new product. So Terry needs to find a new supplier.
Find butt hinge suppliers on Google
Finding new suppliers through Google was Terry’s first thought. The Internet allows us to search for professional suppliers all over the world without having to leave home, from the comfort of our own office location via computer.
But finding the right supplier on the Internet is not an easy task, Terry needs to filter through several suppliers, for example, he needs to find a manufacturer that specializes in butt hinges. So if it is a trader he can not consider it because there are more intermediate links, and as a structural engineer, he prefers to communicate directly with the manufacturer’s technical staff and can express his needs very smoothly.
Development of butt hinges with manufacturers
After some searching on Google, Terry finally settled on a supplier, and then they discussed the details. First, they discussed the construction of the butt hinge, such as whether the hinge would be mounted on a flat surface or with steps. How much space is available for installation to determine the size of the hinge’s appearance?
Then it is important to consider the importance of the door as a way to determine the hinge’s load-bearing properties. We know that a door often requires at least two hinges to be installed. When we know the total weight of the door, we can know the size of the individual hinge load-bearing capacity.
Finally, we will discuss what material to use for the hinges, and what finish to do. And how the hinges should be installed. These issues relate to the environment in which the equipment will be used. For example, if Terry designed the equipment to be used outdoors, or even by the sea. Then the material requirements are higher and may need to be made of stainless steel, or even 316 stainless steel. To prevent the parts from being corroded. If it is used inside the factory, where the environment is better. Then other more economical materials and surface treatments can be considered.
Define the program
Once all the details have been communicated, the butt hinge manufacturer needs to provide a complete proposal. After Terry reads the proposal and finds that it meets the requirements. It’s time to turn over the commercial side to procurement. This mainly involves the production cost of the mold and the unit price of the product. The delivery time, location, packaging requirements, and related documents were also provided.
Provide samples for a trial installation
Once the technical and commercial issues are agreed upon. The hinge manufacturer can proceed with the production of the molds and product samples. This process is mainly the manufacturer’s job. And Terry and his purchasing colleagues can communicate with the manufacturer at any time to follow up on the production progress of the product or to suggest some detailed adjustments. Here is an article detailing the product production process: Do you know how an industrial hinge is produced?
The above is what Terry may need to involve in his work as a structural workman. In this process, we can find that a good supplier can save Terry a lot of work time. If every part is produced by himself, the workload is very big.
IHINGES adheres to the concept that professional things should be done by professional people or organizations. IHINGES is one such manufacturer that specializes in industrial hinges. All our work is gathered into such a small hardware fitting.
