A New York based designer of custom and high end production furniture needed a mechanism for lifting the top of a custom writing desk. This top weighed 28 pounds and had to be moved with only a light touch along its entire range of motion, from fully closed to fully open, while being absolutely level the whole time. The entire mechanism also had to fit in an extremely constrained space inside the desk. The mechanism was designed and motion modeled in CAD, with calculations done to determine the force required from gas springs and torsion springs to balance the load throughout the range of motion. The mechanism was manufactured from stainless steel plate and hardware, with precision bronze bushings ensuring smooth and reliable movement. A sub-plate mounting arrangement allowed factory adjustment and fine-tuning of the mechanism orientation for width, position and angle.

Below is shown one of the two mirror-image sides of the mechanism, with the two end positions and examples of intermediate positions as it travels.