MaLO Hinge

The Magnetic Longitudinal Offset (MaLO) Hinge belongs to a family of magnetic hinge designs consisting of two identical cuboid magnets embedded in two links (ASME IDETC publication coming soon). In this hinge, longitudinal refers to the direction along the axis of rotation, and lateral the direction perpendicular to it in the plane of the panels. As the name implies, the hinge is primarily characterized by a longitudinal offset, though it also possesses a lateral offset.

The purpose of this work was to create hinges that can fold 180 degrees which are biased to open, the goal being passive deployment of reflectarrray antennas on CubeSats. This is among the thinnest of such hinges, this design coming in at 1mm thick (or thin, if you will).