Hinges

The other day I passed a company van on the motorway that had a display on its side advertising ‘High Performance’ ironmongery. To illustrate this, it had a giant picture of a hinge. It made me think. What level of ‘performance’ do you need from a hinge? I would have thought it would be pretty basic. Using a door (a lid would work just as well) to illustrate, I would suggest it needs to perform two functions:

1. Along with its partner (that is something working in co-operation as opposed to being in some sort of civil relationship) it needs to secure the door or lid to the door frame
2. It needs to create rotation on a fixed axis so that the door or lid opens and closes

Other than those two functions I cannot see what else it needs to do. Therefore, I would suggest that its performance should not be measured in degrees of accomplishment. 

Nobody opens a door and says, “Wow, these hinges are right on their game today. Did you see the way they manoeuvred that door. Quality! Big improvement on last week, if you ask me.”

No pundits appear on television to give their assessment of hinge performance.
“Well, Clive, I think if these hinges continue to put in the sort of performances we have seen over the past few weeks, you gotta say they are approaching world class.”

So, in writing this, I don't mean to be critical of a company for trying to promote its ironmongery, but I think ‘high performance’ might just be a step too far for a hinge.