Modo Snap Hinge 眼镜架 by Modo Design Team is a highly esteemed winner of the very prestigious 2022 A' Design Award 银奖 in 珠宝设计 Competition Category.

银珠宝· 2022

Modo Snap Hinge 眼镜架

by Modo Design Team

Client: MODO Eyewear

A' Design Award 银奖 Winner in 珠宝 Category

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Verified Award Winner

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View at A' Design Award Press Release Award Badge

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The Design

About Modo Snap Hinge 眼镜架

Modo Snap Hinge 是一款采用无螺丝铰链系统打造的眼镜架。该铰链仅凭压力将镜框前框与镜腿相连接，无需螺丝或焊接。整体仅使用三个部件：一支带钩形结构的β钛镜腿、一枚两端呈双锥形的不锈钢小圆柱，以及一个内部带有倒扣凹槽的注塑成型高分子前框。圆柱被固定于前框之中，可实现顺滑的摩擦式转动。整个机构隐藏于镜框端片内部，使镜架保持简约而洁净的外观。

The Recognition

About the A' Design Award 银奖

Modo Snap Hinge 眼镜架是 A' Design Award 银奖得主，这是授予顶级、华美而令人印象深刻的设计的极为崇高的认可。银奖得主是极其卓越、极具创造力的作品，展现出其设计师杰出的专业技能、才华与敏锐。预计Modo Snap Hinge 眼镜架将成为一件出色的典范之作，兼具非凡的专业性与深刻的创新性。这件赢得 A' Design Award 银奖的设计是一项备受瞩目、令人钦佩的发明，造福并拓展艺术、科学、设计和技术的边界。Modo Snap Hinge 眼镜架是一件令人羡慕的创作，它唤起渴望，带来积极的情感，并激发惊叹与赞叹。

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