According to the latest information, Huawei filed a patent for hinge assembly for a folding phone on October 22, 2019, and released the details on April 29, 2021. As we know that the development of foldable smartphones is very strong, but there are still many engineering problems that need to be solved to make it as reliable as ordinary mobile phones.
In a recently published patent, Huawei proposed its own solution to the problem that the folding smartphone cannot be placed flat on the table due to the volume of the hinge. Their solution is to superimpose the “blade” in the hinge assembly.
The patent reads: “The hinge assembly includes a row of interconnected and adjacent hinge blades and at least one linear actuator. When the hinge assembly is in the unfolded position, the hinge blades are aligned in a common plane. When the hinge assembly moves to the folded position, in the end position, each hinge blade rotates around the hinge assembly rotation axis relative to the adjacent hinge blade.
The linear actuator includes a rotation shaft and a linear drive device. The first end of the linear drive device is connected to the rotation shaft and linearly driven. The second and opposite ends of the device are connected to at least one hinge blade.
Huawei pointed out that the advantage of this component is that the hinge can be easily turned without any effort, while still being able to safely lock in one of the required positions, namely the unfolded position or the folded end position. In addition, since there is only one locking arrangement, there is no accumulation of individual manufacturing tolerances, providing better flatness in the deployed position, while avoiding the need to synchronize movement between several points in order to provide sufficient locking force.
(Via)
