I received today’s Fixed-it Friday photo from John Fuentes of Treanor Design, and we have a question for iDigHardware readers. What’s the reason for the atypical hinge locations on this cruise ship door? Any theories?
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Guesses
1. Ship not made in USA, so that’s the way it is done in???
2. Heavy door, more support
3. Maybe to help it be a little more water tight
4. Easier to pull the pins and door
Ok will wait for answer
Standard 3 hinges started sagging from people leaning on the door handle, so they added a 4th one between the middle and top?
I don’t have the answer, but last evening was watching a murder mystery show that takes place on a cruise ship, and had the same question about the mysterious extra hinge!
The swaying of the ship put a lot of loading on the top hinges when the doors is open, so more hinges at the top where the door experiences more tension.
Justaguess – The ship pitches and rolls, and that puts extra stress on the top hinges, especially if the door is open.
I would guess, spring hinges maybe??
I would say that just carries the weight of the door better since most of the weight is on the upper hinges. Seems like we see this in invisible hinges and DA spring hinges.
Since the top hinge has the most stress, they added a helper hinge between the top and middle hinges for what looks to be a wider door? Just guessing. The hinges appear to be two-knuckle hinges also – easy on, easy off.
Well, with spring hinges, such as the old Bommer 3029’s, they often put the middle hinge rather close to the top hinge for extra support, and while these don’t appear to be spring hinges, maybe some sort of gravity hinge (like a gravity pivot from Overly) and it helps with the closing of the door? at the very least it would add extra support for a heavy door, though I am a bit amused by the door that has a sign that say “accessible restroom” but also has a knob on it, so I got nothing, haha.
Europe often has the middle hinge much closer to the top hinge.
Decades ago, “Swedoor” from Sweden did something similar with prehung, heavy wood entry doors. Idea was to better offset weight of door when open.
Many cruise ships are constructed in Finland, so maybe this is a Nordic thing
Perhaps these hinges are self closing spring hinges and that being a heavy door would need more than one set of hinges to close the door?
Weight distribution, personally, dealing with doors for 30+!years in a commercial and University setting, placing the top 2 hinges where they are in the pic, eliminate the traditional middle hinge and keep the bottom as is should become industry standard. Having the middle hinge placed in the upper space would help relieve downward preassure on the latch side and help maintain gap reveal between door and frame over time. It would mimimize shimming as well.
As stated above, most likely this ship was built somewhere in the EU. Very common to see non-symmetrical hinge placement on interior and exterior door throughout Europe.
Also, both the top and bottom hinges are located much further toward the door ends than standard US placement.
Door are for handicapped, extra stress may apply to the doors, when door is being open or close, Two more hinge are common in European practice, especially Scadinavian likes to use two knuckles hinge.
A blend of American and European architectural styles. American architects like symmetry and European architects prefer durability. Top hinge is in tension up to a 90-degree swing, frequently allowing the door to sag over time as the hinge wears and the top hinge mounting reinforcements sag. The additional hinge helps support the door. Bottom hinges are in compression up to 90 degrees of swing and the frame constricts any movement beyond the normal gap at the hinge edge.
It is normal to have two hinges on top in the UK and the Middle East, which might be better for load distribution.