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Prefabricated building
The present invention relates to a prefabricated building, comprising building components in the form of floor sec- tions, wall sections and roof sections, which, for ship¬ ping, are designed to be laid on top of each other to form a shipping unit with a bottom area substantially equal to the area of one floor section.
Prefabricated buildings of this type with small shipping volume simplify transport, at the same time as work at the building site is essentially limited to simple founda¬ tion work and assembly of the prefabricated sections.
SE 394305 describes, for small buildings with a single floor section and a single roof section, having the lower edges of the side walls be hinged to the floor section and the upper edges of the endwalls hinged to the roof section. After raising the walls, which are load-bearing, a box- like building is obtained which cannot be easily combined with similar building in order to increase the floor area for example or change the layout. The stability of the building is completely dependent on the walls.
In another design described in SE 350998, the building com¬ ponents are packed as a box with the floor as the bottom of the box and the roof as its cover and with the walls stored inside the box for shipping. The various sections are not connected to each other at all. This design also makes it difficult to increase the floor area or change the layout.
The purpose of the invention is to eliminate the disadvan¬ tages of known types of prefabricated buildings and to achieve a type of prefabricated building package where simple combination of various components permits varia¬ tion in the size and layout of the building. Furthermore, both assembly and shipping must be simple.
This is achieved according to the invention which is characterized in that the building components form at least two primary modules and at least one secondary module with the number of primary modules exceeding the number of secondary modules by one, each secondary module being designed to be placed between two primary modules; that . . each primary module and each secondary module have, in addition to a roof section and a floor section, at least two endwall sections; and that in each primary module each endwall section is provided with at least two wall uprights which when erected form the supporting frame of the walls. By virtue of this construction, the size of the building can be changed easily by connecting a suitable number of modules, at the same time as the walls can be of more simple design since they need not be load-bearing.
A particularly simple assembly is possible if, in each primary module, each endwall section is hinged at its lower edge to the floor section via the wall uprights, and has an endwall unit disposed between the wall uprights, and if, in each secondary module, the endwall section consists of an endwall unit made to be placed between two adjacent wall uprights in two adjacent primary modules.
• The invention will be explained below in more detail with the aid of an example shown in the accompanying drawing: Fig 1 shows a perspective view of - building constructed with a set of prefabricated components according to the invention, Fig 2 shows a layout of the building in Fig 1 , Fig 3 shows a detail of the building in Fig 1 , Fig 4 shows an end of a floor frame as viewed from above. Fig 5 shows an end view of a corner of the floor frame in Fig 4, Fig 6 shows an end view of the corner in Fig 5, Fig 7 shows a front view of a wall upright. Fig 8 shows a side view of the wall upright in Fig 7,
Fig 9 shows a view from above of the wall upright in Fig 7, Fig 10 shows a wall "upright- fixed in the erect position on a floor frame. Fig 11 shows a section XI-XI in Fig 2, Fig 12 shows a side view of a shipping unit, and
Fig 13 shows a schematic placement of components in Fig 12.
Figs 1 and 2 show schematically a building 1 of the type which can be erected with the aid of the prefabricated components according to the invention. The building 1 comprises a number of primary modules 2 and a number of secondary-modules 3, which are placed next to each other so. that between two..primary modules there is .a secondary module. In this particular case there are three primary modules and two secondary modules in the building 1".
Each primary module 2 comprises, as can be seen in Fig 3, a roof section 4, a floor section 5 and two endwall sections 6. Also the two outermost primary modules each have a long wall section 7 forming the end of the building. Each end¬ wall section 6 has two wall uprights 8 and at least one endwall unit 9 mounted therebetween. The wall uprights 8 when erected, form the supporting frame of the walls. The endwall sections 6 are hinged, via the wall uprights 8, to the floor section 5 and can lie thereon when folded down
(see Fig 3). The floor section 5 comprises a floor frame 10 on which one or more floor units 11 rest, forming the actual floor surface.
Each secondary module 3 comprises a roof section 12, a floor section 13 and two endwall sections 14. The floor section 13 consists of at least one floor unit 15 and at least two supporting beams 16 which are designed to be mounted between the floor frames 10 of two adjacent primary modules to support, together with said floor frames, said floor units
15. The endwall section 14 consists of at least one endwall unit 17 designed to be mounted between two adjacent wall uprights 8 in two adjacent primary modules 2.
/^§
Each wall upright 8, which is disposed at the joint between a primary module and a secondary module, forms with its • upper end a support both for a roof section 4 and for a roof section 12, suitably of the same construction. The roof sections are rigid enough so that supporting inter¬ mediate walls are not required, thus making for very flex¬ ible layout possibilities by moving the interior walls.
The detailed structure of a floor frame 10 is shown in Figs 4-6. The floor frame 10 is formed of U-beams joined to each other to form a rigid frame. At each corner there is a vertical bracket 18 for an upright 8. The bracket 18 is provided with a horizontal pin 19, which can in turn be provided with a lock means 20. At each corner of the short end of the floor frame 10 there is also a fixing means 21 for fixing the upright 8 in the upright position. The fixing means 21 can, as in the example shown here, consist of two nuts 24 mounted behind individual holes 22 in the floor frame 10, possibly with an intermediate supporting plate 23. This enables the uprights to be so securely fixed in the erected position as to stabilize the building against horizontal wind forces. Correspondingly, at each corner of the long sides of the floor frame 10 there is a similar fixing means 25 for securing a supporting beam 16. The ' design of these fixing means can of course be varied in a number of different ways as required.
The detailed construction of an upright 8 is revealed in Figs 7-9. The metal upright 8, T-shaped in cross section, is provided at its lower end with a hole 26 for the hori¬ zontal pin 19 on the bracket 18 on the floor frame 10. At the lower end there are also two holes 27 fitting the holes 22 on the floor frame 10. Around the holes 27 there is also a spacer 28 designed to be in contact with the floor frame 10. At the top of the wall upright 8, there is a support 29 for one or more roof sections. This support can be provided with suitably constructed anchoring means, in the form of
holes and pegs for example, for corresponding means on one or two roof sections.
As can be seen in Fig 10, a wall upright 8 is fixed in the upright position on the floor frame 10 with the aid of fastening means 30 in the form of bolts placed in the holes 27 in the wall upright 8 and screwed into the nuts 24. A rigid joint between the upright 8 and the floor frame 10 is obtained thereby. The endwall units 9 and 17 are fixed to the wall upright 8 by screws for example.
As can be seen in Fig 11 , the floor frame 10 long side facing a secondary module acts as a support for the floor unit 15 of the secondary module as well. An intermediate wall 31 extends between two wall uprights 8 and covers the seam between two floor units and is disposed under the seam between two roof sections 4 and 12, which rest at their ends on a common wall upright 8.
The material for a building 1 can, as is shown in Fig 12, be delivered in the form of a shipping unit 32 in which the various building components, in the form of floor sections, wall sections, roof sections etc. are laid on top of each other. The bottom area of the shipping unit is substantially equal to the area of a floor section.
The various building components are protected and held in place with the aid .of four angled corner posts 33 which are held together by cross-stays for example or by other suit- able means. In order to further protect and hold the various building components in place, a suitable number of spacers, of wood or other suitable material, can be used. Each ship¬ ping unit 32 contains all the required building components which are preferably stacked in such a way as to reduce to a minimum the number of lifts required in the assembly of the building.
OMPI
In the example shown, there are three identical blocks a', an and a1", -of which a' and a" are on top and a'" is at the very bottom. Each of these blocks consists of a floor frame 10, floor units 11 , wall uprights 8 and endwall units 9. On top of block am there are five roof sections 12, and on top of them there are two floor sections 11. Lying on top of the floor sections 11 there is a block b containing the rest of the wall units and accessories, such as support beams 16.
A building can be assembled with advantage by first placing the entire shipping package 32 where block a"1 is to be in the finished building (see Fig 13). Blocks a' and a" are then lifted in place, while block b is lifted to one side for future use. The supporting beams can then be mounted and the floor sections 11 lifted into place. After erecting the endwall sections in blocks a' and a", the three uppermost roof sections 12' can be mounted in place. The two underlying roof sections 12" are lifted to one side so that the endwall sections in block a1" can be raised. The two remaining roof sections 12" and the rest of the walls and other components can then be mounted in place. If required, it is of course possible to package and assemble the building components in another order. It is of course also possible to dis¬ assemble a standing building to form a shipping package 32 suitable for shipping.
By combining primary modules and secondary modules in various ways, the size of the building can be adapted to requirements, at the same time as it is easy to vary the layout considerably by virtue of the fact that the interior walls are not load-bearing. The example de¬ scribed above can of course be varied in many different ways within the scope of the invention.
_OMPI
Each floor section can for example consist of a floor plate which is sufficiently rigid in itself, thereby eliminating the need for separate floor frames and supporting beams. The floor plates of the primary modules must then be provided with'suitable fixing means for the wall uprights 8.
The wall uprights 8 do not necessarily need to be hinged to the floor sections; they can for example be free and be designed to be dropped into sockets or the like in the floor sections.