Reliability Evaluation of Hinges Used in Electronic Communication Devices

摘要

The hinge, which is used in various folders of electronic communication devices, damages easily due to the repeated impact-like stress that occurs when the folder is opened. The hinge damage not only affects the lifetime of devices, but it may cause to lose the reputation of the brand name of the company. In this paper, the total process for the life evaluation and failure analysis of this part is proposed. For this, the mechanism of the hinge motion was analyzed first to calculate the force acting on the hinge. Also an automatic durability test system was developed to repeatedly open and shut the folder. Then the change in deformation around the hinge was monitored using an Electronic Speckle Pattern Interferometer (ESPI) method, as the repetition number increased for the opening of the folder. ESPI results showed that the deformation was concentrated at the hinge and it increased according to the increase of repetition number of folder opening. Finally, we evaluated the life of the hinge through an accelerated life test (ALT). ALT results showed that the life of hinge was dependent on the force acting on the hinge