Hinges
What is a door without a means of opening it? Sliding systems aside, hinges are defining features of any door (not to mention lids, flaps etc). Hinges are the mechanism, you could say, that make a door a door.
Hinges play a pivotal role in the Sugatsune range. They are above all others the components on which we have hung our reputation for engineering excellence and design innovation for almost 100 years.
In that time, we’ve made it our business to reimagine what the humble hinge is capable of. Browse our catalogue to discover not only one of the largest ranges of cabinet, architectural and interior door hinges available anywhere, but discover new possibilities in how hinges move, function and look.
A Story of Motion
In Japan, hinges are often called “choutsugai”, which translates literally as “paired butterflies”. Look at a standard butt hinge and you can easily see why.
At Sugatsune, we like to take this idea further still. Like a butterfly, we engineer all of our hinges to be elegant in both appearance and motion.
How a hinge moves might seem incidental. But to us, it’s an obsession. Why risk doors or lids slamming shut unexpectedly when you can control the motion via the hinge? Damper technology is a speciality of ours, and with innovations such as our ultra-compact Lapcon rotary damper, we have been able to pioneer the concept of soft-close hinges, delivering supreme motion control through dampers built into the hinge itself.
Similarly, using torque mechanisms, our free stop hinges will hold a door – or even a horizontal lid or flap – open in any position, enabling safe, convenient, hands-free access. And flipping that around, our self-close hinges make left open doors a thing of the past.
For more innovations in hinge motion, check out our lateral-opening hinge solutions listed in our Wardrobe and Cabinet Door Hardware and Architectural Door Hardware sections.

More Than Meets the Eye
We’re more than happy for our hinges to be seen. Whether you’re talking hinges for glass display cases, kitchen cabinets, full-length wardrobes or interior doors, we take great pains to ensure all of our products are neat, stylish and pleasing on the eye. We believe aesthetic appeal is a key part of great design.
But we also understand that, from an interior designer or cabinet maker’s perspective, visible components on doors and cupboards and storage areas are not always desirable. There’s a lot to be said for the ‘less is more’ approach, especially when you are aiming for a sleek, minimalist, modern look.
That’s why over the years we have put so much focus on developing our range of concealed hinges. To the extent that we are now unique in offering concealed hinges for the complete range of interior door types and for multiple mounting options. In particular, we have pushed the envelope on the size and weight of doors concealed hinges and support, pioneering concealed hinge options for large cabinets, full-length cupboards, walk-in wardrobes and interior doors.
With our J concealed hinge range, for example, we strengthened the pivot arm in the traditional concealed hinge design – previously viewed as a limitation in door weight – so that the most heavy duty hinges in the series can now hold doors up to 40kg. With wide-angle opening options and integrated soft close, hidden cabinet hinges have never been so flexible or so smooth in their motion.
The pivot arm design is also a reason why concealed hinges have always been restricted to cabinets. Their length means you need a large interior mounting surface, making them unsuitable for narrow door frames. That all changed with the introduction of our HES range, a genuine breakthrough in hinge design.
Based on a re-imagined butt hinge in which a condensed pin slots into gaps in the leaf when closed, HES hinges disappear from view between the jamb and stile of a closed door for a seamless pristine finish. These days, the extended HES range includes solutions for small cabinet doors all the way up to heavyweight interior doors up to 125kg. With options for no-frame doors and no-mortise mounting, the HES series brings “choutsugai” elegance in form and function full circle to create a complete concealed solution for every door type.
