What Is A Concealed Hinge?
Among concealed hinges’ alternative names are hidden hinge and European hinge. This hinge is designed to sit flush inside a cabinet door and align with the cabinet surface, giving it a sleek exterior look.
Concealed hinges can be designed with various styles, including different types of leaves, pins, and sizes.
Concealed hinges have a more industrial design to withstand the weight of doors between 50 lbs to 90 lbs, making it easier to install short, wide panels.
Combined with modern designs, today’s concealed hinges are made to accommodate different door designs along with soft-close features, adjustable arms, and quick release systems.
Hinges are primarily made from steel, zinc, stainless steel, and aluminum, as well as zinc and other softer metals. Commercial-grade concealed hinges designed to endure higher loads and stresses are often aluminum, stainless steel, or cold-rolled steel.
Steel, zinc, and stainless steel are the main materials used to make these hinges. To improve their wear resistance, these hinges undergo surface treatments like zinc plating, passivation, or electropolishing.
Parts Of Concealed Hinges
The characteristics of concealed hinges depend on the specific type and its variations, but the basic construction comes with some components like a pin, leaves, knuckle, and the scope of the hinge itself.
A particular blend of these advanced alterations comprises what abuse what is labeled as ’rounded hinges’ which requires less modification to the cabinets.
These rounded hinges lack the principal elements such as the pin, which makes it strat less complicated to put together and is often simpler to use as its name suggests, it is used in different places such as electrical enclosures.
Enclosure hinges are, in fact, a type of industrial hinge for electrical enclosures like cubicles in factories and labs.
The name is self explanatory as the pin can be detached easily from its base, and that’s why enclosure cabinets can be used widely as this offers great value to the workers instead of hindrances. This encloses the electrical cabinets without the doors getting in the way, which increases efficiency.
Hinge Cup
The cup hinge takes the place of the round area on the cabinet, which also acts as a mounting point. Its bore diameters measure 26 to 40 mm, with the design only allowing the depth of the bore to be pruned while hinge arms can be altered.
While the positioning of the screw can be changed on the doors, the position of the cup hinge requires two arms on the fusinal screw which stops the hinge cup from rotating freely.
Hinge Arm
The hinge arm is usually referred to as the primary part of the hinge since it embodies the majority of the features it concentrates on. It integrates the hinge cup, which is mounted to the back of the door, and the mounting plate, which is attached to the frame of the cupboard.
To enable the use of different styles of cabinet doors and different requirements of travel or end play, the hinge arm is made in different styles.
The concealed hinge consists of the main parts, which are the hinge cup and the hinge arm with both parts usually assembled together.
In normal conditions, a pair of concealed hinges will have two parts: the body of the hinge and an additional mounting plate. There are also one-piece hinge sets that combine both parts into a single unit for easier and more compact use.
Mounting Plate
The Mounting Plate is located at the edge, side, or frame of the furniture where it is directly attached. Generally, it has two or four holes for screws on the door’s edge depending of the door’s weight or load requirements. It has notches, clips, and holes for securing the hinge arm.
Concealed Hinge for Enclosures
The industrial enclosure concealed hinges are greatly important to the security, safety, and protection of enclosures and cabinets, which makes them useful to operational efficiency.
Concealed hinges come in multiple designs, starting from the simplest types with screw holes and curved brackets to more sophisticated types with custom-made brackets and screws, quick-release removable pins and special leaves with custom shapes.
Curved Pivot Concealed Hinge
- Curved Pivot: The cabinet door can swing around smoothly because of the flexible pivot, a curved pivot. It also has holes for mounting wooden cabinets so it can be welded or designed without holes for metal cabinets.
- Brackets: The concealed hinge gets its name from the analogy to other types of hinge brackets. Concealed hinge brackets are like other brackets of traditional hinges. These brackets may be hinged, pre-drilled or with no holes.
- Pin: Brackets can be left in position, but for easy access to the cabinet contents, the pin has to be removed. The removable pin allows for easy removal of the industrial enclosure hinges.
Electrical Box Concealed Hinge
The concealed hinges used for boxes are designed for cabinets and enclosures that contain electrical circuits, connections, and breakers.
For easy replacements or repairs of electrical components, they are designed to be removed quickly. The material they are made of can withstand exposure to the environment and suffering from corrosion.
The following is a list of primary features of an electrical box concealed hinge:
- Quick Release Pin: The box or cabinet can be opened by removing the door, which can be done with the heavy-duty steel quick-release pin that has a convenient grab handle on top for simple pull-off.
- Box Leaf: The box leaf comes with a radius underneath it for bolts that hold the hinge body to the utility bracket.
- Hex Bolts: Hex bolts act to hold the utility bracket and the body of the hinge tighter.
- Lid Leaf: The quick-release pin that holds the lid leaf allows it to spin about this pin when the box or the cabinet is opened. It is attached to the body of the hinge in the typical method, meaning a knuckle fits in the knuckle and the rest of the knob will rotate the hinge.
Springs, overlay, and reveal are concealed hinge specifications of interest in the design of cabinet doors. Each of these dimensions will define the boundaries of appeal of the door and the look of the cabinet.
Expose defines how much the cabinet door goes across the edge or frame of the cabinet. On the other hand, reveal describes how much of the edge or frame of the cabinet can be seen when the door is closed.
Different overlays and reveals give rise to primary types of concealed hinges.
Full Overlay Concealed Hinge
This type of hinge is used in cabinets where the door is set flush with the face of the cabinet box or frame. The perimeter of the door sits flush, or its edge slighly backs against the cabinet panels.
While the door may fully cover the cabinet box, some designs allow for a degree of reveal which is a partially concealed opening.
Most commercially available concealed hinges provide some degree of dimension adjustment with the mounting plate, allowing the overlay and reveal settings to be changed as required.
Half Overlay Concealed Hinge
With a half overlay concealed hinge, two doors cover the frame and meet at its center. The center cross-section wall is partitioned, and the inset hinge is mounted on it. This configuration is such that both doors can open simultaneously without any collision with each other.
Due to their small size and simple fastening with wood or metal cabinets, curved pivot concealed hinges are ideal for half overlay sections.
The overlay of a single door is minimized with half overlay installation of a cranked hinge arm and raised mounting plate.
Inset Concealed Hinge
An inset concealed hinge is designed for doors that are within the cabinet panel or frame. As a result, there is no overlay. This configuration allows the door’s face to be flush with the cabinet frame or the edge of the cabinet box.
A fully overlaying inset concealed hinge is achieved with a highly cranked hinge arm and a raised mounting plate.
Pivot Concealed Hinge
Pivot concealed hinges are used for inset door cabinets with discreet hinges.
The hinges consist of two flat leaves. An L bracket is fixed to one of the leaves and the knuckle, plus either a permanent pin or removable pin. The latter is common in industrial applications.
They ensure smooth operation and are suited for holding lightweight doors in industrial applications.
Frame Constructions
Aside from the preferred overlay, cabinets can have several frame constructions. It is crucial to select the correct type of hinge to achieve the desired fit and function.
Frameless: Type Concealed Hinge
This hinge is used for cabinets with usable or plain side panels. It employs mounting screws perpendicular to the mounting plate. Frameless-type concealed hinges can be set up as full overlay, half overlay, or inset hinges.
Face Frame-Type Concealed Hinge
A face-frame cabinet has a small fascia placed on the side panel. The mounted plate design for the face frame type concealed hinges is full overlay and inset type.
For full overlay hinges, the mounting plate has screws perpendicular to the plate. In fold over hinges, screws are fixed at an angle and to the back of the frame.
Special concealed hinge designs exist for less frequently encountered types of cabinets. These are usually located at the inside and outside corners of furniture. Some examples of concealed hinges suitable for these areas are:
Bi-Fold Concealed Hinge
This hinge is intended for use with L-shaped corner cabinet double doors. Standard concealed hinges, overlay or inset, attach the door assembly to the cabinet frame.
In contrast, bi-fold concealed hinges are used to join the two doors together. This creates a folding door mechanism where one side is hinged directly onto the cabinet.
Blind Corner Concealed Hinge
This type of hinge is meant for use in an inside corner cabinet where the side panel is flush with the door. Most blind corner hinge arms are constructed in a way that enables the cabinet door to open to an angle of approximately 90°.
Corner Concealed Hinge
Also known as angled concealed hinges, corner concealed hinges are meant for doors placed on the outer corners of a piece of furniture. Some furniture has 90° corners, but others come in 30° and 45° corners, as well. A corner-concealed hinge is manufactured to fit the exact angle of the furniture.
What are industrial concealed hinges?
Concealed or invisible hinges are mainly chosen for industrial enclosures, doors, and cabinets for a few primary reasons.
First, they improve the security, safety, and protection of tampering with sensitive or valuable equipment. In such environments, concealed industrial hinges are inaccessible and ensure that the equipment remains protected.
Concealed industrial hinges are found on security doors, interior doors, armor doors, commercial refrigerator doors, and tightly sealed enclosures and cabinets.
Unlike regular open hinges, concealed hinges for industrial applications are hidden, tucked away, and covered, providing magnificent security and protection.
These types of hinges will completely conceal the doorknob, hence its name Hold Door Closed Concealed Hinge.
Hold Door Closed Concealed Hinge
Hold door closed concealed hinges use spring tension, eliminating the requirement for a latch as the door closes automatically after it is opened. They are best suited for busy locations where a door has to remain shut to avoid getting in the way of moving employees.
Surface Mounted Concealed Hinge
Hinges that are concealed surface mounted are critical where high strength, ruggedness, compactness, smooth operation, and flush mounting are desired.
Designed for industrial cabinets, these single-action hinges can rotate up to 180 degrees and may be mounted on wood and metal surfaces.
Quick Release Concealed Hinges
Where fast access to the door is important for an electrical enclosure, cabinet, or box, quick-release concealed hinges are critical. These hinges vary in styles with differing requirements such as pin type, hinge length, and strength.
In most instances, quick-release concealed hinges are surface-mounted, allowing for quick removal of the pin without having to rotate around a door.