Extendable workbenches. Counter flaps. Collapsible shelves. Folding tables and chairs. Adjustable wall-mounted TV and speaker stands. What’s the one component you can find in them all? Folding brackets.
Pick a setting – commercial, industrial, domestic, not to mention furniture manufacture – and you will find a use for folding brackets. Combining the motion of a hinge system with support for horizontal loads, folding brackets add flexibility in how you utilise space. Across furniture and wall-mounted storage, they give you extra options to save space, improve access or add capacity.
They are one of the great multi-purpose components. Which is why at Sugatsune we have gone to great lengths to extend our folding bracket range so we can offer solutions for every need and for every situation.
Let the story unfold.
One became three
For us, it all started with the EB303, our original flagship folding bracket. A stainless steel hinged bracket with automatic position lock and a press release lever, the EB303 was designed as a heavy duty option capable (in pairs) of holding loads up to 150kg. That made it the most robust folding bracket available on the market, ideal for heavyweight counters or pop-up shelves in any setting that you need to bear heavy loads.
In more recent years, we have extended the options available with two variations on the original EB303 design. The shorter EB200 has a lower load capacity but is suitable for shallower shelves in more compact spaces. The ultra heavy duty EB317, meanwhile, is a longer bracket that can bear loads of up to 200kg, answering demand for extra strength in industrial settings in particular.
As well as size and load variations, we also now sell all three folding bracket types in matt black as well as polished stainless steel finishes. Perfect for domestic and commercial interiors, you know what they say about black – it goes with anything. Because we know that great functionality doesn’t have to be at the expense of great looks.
The EB Heavy Duty Folding Bracket can be combined with the EBD Damper.
Special features
As well as adding to the range to accommodate different depths of unit and different load capacities, we’ve also pushed back the boundaries of folding bracket design with innovative solutions to solve a range of issues.
Take this one, for example. Apart from the smallest, lightest loads, folding brackets are usually deployed in pairs. To fold a shelf or counter flap or table extension or whatever the bracket might be supporting, you have to press the lever on both brackets individually to unlock the hinge.
But imagine a situation where the shelf or unit is very wide, and the brackets are not within easy reach of one another. You would have to press one lever first and then move across to the other. With heavy units or counters or loads, this is dangerous. Unlocking one hinge but not the other could cause the whole thing to tilt, putting undue strain on the remaining locked bracket. If that gave way suddenly, the consequences for the person underneath could be terrifying.
That’s why, traditionally, installation instructions for lever release brackets have set limits on how wide apart they can go. To get round this and allow folding brackets to be installed further apart on wider units, we developed the EB-90 – an interlock lever that connects two brackets. Adding an EB-90 to a pair of EB brackets means the lock on both can be released by pressing the lever on just one.
The risks of releasing a bracket holding up a heavy counter flap or shelving unit are not just restricted to wide installations. Even when you can reach both levers, it’s easy to be caught unawares by the speed at which a heavy shelf would fall. That raises the risk of injury and the risk of damage.
Interlock Lever EB-90 can be used with the EB-DA and EB-F (folding brackets).
For this reason, the EBD soft close damper has become one of the most popular accessories we sell for our folding brackets. Like the EB-90, it’s an add-on you install between the brackets. When the lock levers are released, the EBD controls the downwards motion of the shelf or flap in a smooth, safe manner using our patented LAPCON damper technology.
We also offer the EB-DA, a complete hinged bracket with a soft close mechanism incorporated. This avoids the need to install an extra damper. But because of design limitations, it uses a different kind of damper mechanism, namely a gas piston which audibly releases air when activated and may therefore not be suitable for all situations.
Finally, we also have the EB-F, an innovation in folding brackets that locks in four different ‘up’ positions – at 90 degrees as standard, but also at 60, 70 and 80 degrees. This concept was developed for wall displays, for example for books, magazines or comics. Not only does it give the flexibility to adjust the angle for optimum visibility, like all of our other EB brackets, it means the display shelf can be folded down out of the way when not in use.
EB-F holds at 4 angles: 60°, 70°, 80°, 90° (multi angle locking). This makes it perfect for wall display shelves.