Modo Snap Hinge Muntura d'ulleres by Modo Design Team is a highly esteemed winner of the very prestigious 2022 A' Design Award d'Argent in Disseny de Joieria Competition Category.
ArgentJoieria· 2022
Modo Snap Hinge Muntura d'ulleres
Client: MODO Eyewear
A' Design Award d'Argent Winner in Joieria Category
- 36,742
- Verified Award Winner
- Verify Award Status for #135316
The Design
About Modo Snap Hinge Muntura d'ulleres
Modo Snap Hinge és una muntura d'ulleres construïda amb un sistema de frontisses sense cargols. La frontissa uneix el frontal de la muntura amb les patilles només per pressió, sense cargols ni soldadura. Només s'utilitzen tres peces: una patilla de beta-titani amb forma de ganxo, un petit cilindre d'acer inoxidable amb caps biconics i un frontal de polímer emmotllat per injecció amb una cavitat interna rebaixada. El cilindre es manté fixat al frontal i permet una rotació suau per fricció. El mecanisme queda ocult dins de la terminal, cosa que manté la muntura senzilla i neta.
The Recognition
About the A' Design Award d'Argent
Modo Snap Hinge Muntura d'ulleres és un guanyador del guardó A' Design Award d'Argent, un reconeixement extraordinàriament prestigiós concedit a dissenys d'alta gamma, esplèndids i impressionants. Els guanyadors d'Argent són obres tremendament brillants i summament creatives que il·lustren la perícia, el talent i la perspicàcia excepcionals dels seus dissenyadors. Es preveu que Modo Snap Hinge Muntura d'ulleres sigui una obra meravellosa i de gran lluïment, remarcablement professional i profundament innovadora. Aquest disseny guanyador del guardó A' Design Award d'Argent és un invent molt notable i admirat que beneficia i fa avançar els límits de l'art, la ciència, el disseny i la tecnologia. Modo Snap Hinge Muntura d'ulleres és una creació molt envejada que evoca desitjos, introdueix sentiments positius i desperta sorpresa i admiració.
Behind the Design
Press Kit
Credits, team members and technical details provided by the designer.
- Unique Properties
- Part of MODO eyewear collection uses an innovative "Snap Hinge" system that surpasses current common hinge constructions, which are made up of several components. The snap hinge’s main function is to easily join the front of a pair of glasses to their temples through a very simple method – click, by pressure – without the use of screws or welding, and instead by a reliable connection and smooth friction operation.
- Dimensions & Packaging
- Width 140 mm x Depth 150 mm x Height 45 mm
Weight: 13 g
Specifications of the product:
1. Injected front with snap fastening seat obtained internally with undercut shape;
2. Stainless steel bi-conical and anti-rotation cylinder;
3. Laser cut and spring bent beta-titanium temples;
4. Injected temple-tip - Tags
- Simplicity, reliability, sustainability, clean design, hidden mechanism.
- Production Technology
- The innovation of the snap hinge is its few components:
1. A Beta-titanium temple with a specifically designed hook shape
2. A small metal cylinder that is inserted into the temple hook and acts as the temple’s rotation mechanism. The cylinder heads have a particular bi-conical surface that allows the ‘snap’ attachment to the frame front, for a very resilient one-time-only attachment and unlimited lifespan.
3. An ultra-performing polymer frame front made by a specialised injection molding technique that allows the creation of an internal ‘undercut’ cavity, which serves as the house for the metal cylinder. - Design Challenge
- The seeming simplicity of the final result hides a constructive difficulty that we had to overcome with an advanced molding process. The most difficult part was to make the cavity / house of the cylinder inside the plastic polymer front, since it is to be made with a particular undercut that generally in injected front pieces it is not possible.
- Research
- Eyewear frames generally feature hinges with several disadvantages related to the complexity of production and assembly / disassembly, as well as the actual durability of the coupling between the temple and the spectacle front piece.
In particular, hinges provided with a screw pin and corresponding coupling elements, which can be fixed to the temples and front-piece require long and complex production steps. The use of screw pins and / or screw connections will eventually lead to loosening and wear in the long run, which will reduce the service life of the hinge and of the frame. With regards to the hinges that do not use a screw coupling, they are rather complex. Therefore, a large number of components and their mutual couplings are required, and with their particular shapes they necessitate high production costs.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a simple screw-less hinge capable of ensuring a robust and reliable coupling between the temples and the front piece of the spectacles in order to simplify the mounting steps.
Advantageously, the spectacle frame of the present invention makes it possible to:
- reduce production costs compared to the existing frames;
- has an high level of reliability due to the reduced number of its components;
- simplify the assembly steps;
In terms of design, this innovation allows the hinge to be completely hidden inside the injected front, creating a minimal and clean and eco-sustainable hidden design as the components and processes used are truly reduced.
However, the extreme reduction of components required a high degree of engineering and precision, both in the realisation of the mold for the production of the front with seat obtained, of the steel cylinder, and a perfect calibration of the temple-hook in bent beta titanium. Industrialising the perfect assembly to have a lasting friction were the final steps of this project. - Inspiration
- The inspiration comes from other connection systems present in nature or in mechanical and handcrafted pieces, with the difference that in this case the various materials and their natural elasticity have been exploited in a way that reduces the number of moving parts and pieces and contributes to the longevity of the product.
- Project Duration
- The project started in 2020 and launched into Spring-Summer 2022.
- Operation Flow
- The assembly process is extremely simple and reduced to only two operations:
1. Insertion of the metal cylinder into the Beta-titanium temple hook
2. Pressure insertion of the cylinder + temple assembly into the injected polymer front’s housing.
This new construction is stable and resilient, and the bi-conical surface processing of the cylinder heads prevents the metal cylinder from rotating inside the front piece. The temple hook surrounds the cylinder and rotates around the cylindrical surface. This particular combination of metallic materials allows fluid motion and frictional rotation, thanks to the particular self-lubricating operation of the two different materials.
In terms of perception and design, the hinge mechanism is completely hidden inside the end-piece of the frame front. Depending on the transparency of the chosen polymer, it is possible to decide to show the mechanism with transparent shades or to hide it completely with opaque colors.
Extreme simplicity, great reliability, maximum production economy, sustainability: for a clean design. - Patents
- European Paten Application:
EP21209782.8 - Team Members
- MODO Design Team
- Image Credits
- MODO Eyewear
Sponsored
Explore Beyond Designers.org
Discover products, services and opportunities from our advertising partners.
More to Explore
Related Designs
Explore more award-winning designs from the same category, selected by merit.
