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