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National Runner Up

Strike-Plate Covering

A strike-plate covering to reduce the noise of loud doors by 32%.

What it does

This strike-plate covering reduces the noise of loud closing doors by 32%.


Your inspiration

Loud doors are a commonly cited sources of noise in hospitals that disturbs patients attempting to rest, and staff attempting to concentrate on work. Areas of hospitals where patients attempt to sleep are high traffic areas, with hospital staff entering and exiting rooms many times throughout the day and night. Loud doors are not only disruptive in hospitals, but often disturbs sleeping babies in nurseries and homes, students attempting to study in dorm rooms, as well as in a host of other similar scenarios in which people require or desire uninterrupted peace, quiet, and concentration.


How it works

The strike-plate covering is placed over the existing strike plate in the door frame. No hardware or adhesives are needed to secure the object in place. The geometry of the strike-plate covering grips itself around the bent lip of the existing metal strike plate underneath. The portion of the strike-plate covering that goes inside the recess in the door frame cradles the metal latch, slowing it down and dampening the noise it creates when it springs outward. The metal materiality of existing door hardware is what makes the opening and closing of doors so loud. This strike-plate covering is made of a softer material which dampens the collision between the existing metal hardware components when doors are opened and closed.


Design process

I began prototyping out of paper-based materials. From there, I experimenting with rubber materials, including silicone and sheet magnet. The sheet magnet prototype held itself to the existing metal strike plate, making installation and deinstallation easy and seamless to do. Yet, not all strike plates are made of magnetic materials, which eliminated this model from the list of candidates for the final design. I then modified the geometry of the strike-plate covering so that it would hold itself in place without the help of magnetism, adhesives, or additional hardware. Eventually, the overall size of the final strike-plate covering design was reduced to just cover the exact contact point between the metal strike plate and the metal latch. Reducing the size of the overall design reduces the material needed in order to produce the product, making it more efficient and sustainable than previous prototype geometries. The final prototype is made of a 3D-printed flexible resin which effectively reduces the noise of a closing door by 31.2%. The flexible resin is a soft material that dampens the noise of the closing door, but is also strong enough to not deteriorate after repeated use.


How it is different

Unlike other solutions to quiet noisy doors, this strike-plate covering does not require any modifications to existing doors or door frames. Current products on the market require users to drill into door frames, install expensive hydraulic mechanisms, or purchase custom hardware fittings that are expensive and are not universal to all door types or designs. In addition, many products on the market are effective noise dampeners, but they are so bulky that they do not allow the door to be fully closed. This strike-plate covering is slim enough that doors may open and close as normal. Furthermore, when the strike-plate covering is installed, it does not interfere with the ability to lock a door.


Future plans

The next phase is to further experiment with more materials in order to further optimize the dampening effect of the object, while reducing the overall size of the object even more. Once the final design is further refined, the following phase will be to experiment with various manufacturing processes to determine which would be the most environmentally sustainable and sensible means of producing the product at a large scale. I am also interested in exploring the possibility of harvesting paper and or linen waste from hospitals, to potentially create a composite material with which to test fabricate future design iterations of this product.


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