IL279244A - Modules - Google Patents

Description

MODULES BACKGROUND There have been many prior proposals for constructing buildings from prefabricated units. In some proposals, panels are prefabricated and transported to a site for assembly into a building. The transport of the panels is reasonably straightforward but the assembly on site involves a considerable amount of labour. In other proposals, an entire building is prefabricated and transported, often with some difficulty. Another option is to make a building from several prefabricated three-dimensional modules and assemble the modules on site, but in that case both transport and assembly tend to be time-consuming and expensive. Many types of prefabricated modules were commercialized the 1950's. These all suffered from quality problems. Some of these problems were tied to low building standards, problems that may have existed in traditional building but were exacerbated in the prefabricated modules. Since then many countries have found that cheap labour disincentivizes technological progress in prefabrication of modules and improvement of building methods and systems. However, recent improvement of building standards, lack of cheap labour due to political or plague conditions, and an ever increasing demand to shorten construction period have created a great new interest and need for a change to use of improved prefabrication of modules. One recent building method using prefabricated modules is known as the Baranovitch Method. In this method huge steel modules, each including a corner, are brought to the building site and positioned, whereupon concrete is poured therein and covered with a decorative stone layer and stone blocks. After the concrete dries the modules may be removed; however, the modules are expensive, it is difficult to transport them, and the building time is still many years long.

SUMMARY According to one aspect, a first building module is provided comprising: thin long boards and thin short boards; two interwall floor beams and two interwall ceiling beams; two long vertical external wall-beams and two long vertical internal wall-beams, at least two short vertical external wall-beams and at least two short vertical internal wall-beams, each affixed to an interwall floor beam and an interwall ceiling beam; wherein: each long vertical external wall-beam and short vertical external wall-beam, and each long vertical internal wall-beam and short vertical internal wall-beam, attached to same interwall floor beam and interwall ceiling beam, are spaced apart and configured to allow: engaging a thin long board with the long vertical external wall-beams; engaging a thin long board with the long vertical internal wall-beams; engaging a thin short board with the short vertical external wall-beams; engaging a thin short board with the short vertical internal wall-beams; making a wall between the thin long board engaged with the long vertical external wall-beams and the thin short board engaged with the short vertical external wall-beams, and making a wall between the thin long board engaged with the long vertical internal wall-beams and the thin short board engaged with the short vertical internal wall-beams, and affixing each long vertical external wall-beam and long vertical internal wall-beam, short vertical external wall-beam, and short vertical internal wall-beam to the same in adjacent first building modules. According to another aspect, a second building module is provided comprising: two wing units and a corner unit therebetween; the wing units each comprising: two long vertical external wall-beams, and two long vertical internal wall-beams; two thin long wing boards; the corner unit comprising: two long vertical external wall-beams and two long vertical internal wall-beams, each of the long vertical external wall-beams of the corner unit affixed to a long vertical external wall-beam of a wing unit and each of the long vertical internal wall-beams of the corner unit affixed to a long vertical internal wall-beam of a wing unit; a long corner beam; a plurality of metal bands affixed at one of their ends to the long corner beam, and at another one of their ends to a long vertical external wall-beam; vertical metal rods; U-shaped rods, each welded to all the vertical metal rods, and at their ends to the long vertical external wall-beams, and long vertical internal wall-beams of the corner unit; thin long corner boards; wherein: the long vertical external wall-beams of a wing unit, are spaced apart and configured to allow engaging a thin long wing board therewith; the long vertical internal wall-beams of a wing unit, are spaced apart and configured to allow engaging a thin long wing board therewith; each long vertical external wall-beam of a corner unit and the long corner beam, are spaced apart and configured to allow engaging a thin long corner board therewith; the second building module configured to allow: making a wall between: the engaged long thin wing boards engaged with the long vertical internal wall-beams of the wing units and the engaged long thin wing boards engaged with the long vertical external wall- beams of the wing units and the engaged long thin corner boards engaged with the long vertical external wall-beams of the corner units and the corner beam, and affixing a long vertical external wall-beam and a long vertical internal wall-beam of each wing unit to the same in adjacent first building modules. According to another aspect, off-site storeys are provided, each comprising at least four second building modules and at least four first building modules.

According to yet another aspect, a building is provided comprising the off-site stories brought to a building site and assembled there together. Unless otherwise defined, all technical and scientific terms used herein have the same meaning as commonly understood by one of ordinary skill in the art. Although suitable methods and materials are described below, methods and materials similar or equivalent to those described herein can be used in the practice of the present embodiments. In case of conflict, the patent specification, including definitions, will control. All materials, methods, and examples are illustrative only and are not intended to be limiting. As used herein, the terms "comprising" and "including" or grammatical variants thereof are to be taken as specifying inclusion of the stated features, integers, actions or components without precluding the addition of one or more additional features, integers, actions, components or groups thereof. This term is broader than, and includes, the terms "consisting of" and "consisting essentially of" as defined by the Manual of Patent Examination Procedure of the United States Patent and Trademark Office. Thus, any recitation that an embodiment "includes" or "comprises" a feature is a specific statement that sub embodiments "consist essentially of" and/or "consist of" the recited feature. The phrase "consisting essentially of" or grammatical variants thereof when used herein are to be taken as specifying the stated features, integers, steps or components but do not preclude the addition of one or more additional features, integers, steps, components or groups thereof but only if the additional features, integers, steps, components or groups thereof do not materially alter the basic and novel characteristics of the claimed composition, device or method. The phrase "adapted to" as used in this specification and the accompanying claims imposes additional structural limitations on a previously recited component. 30 The term "method" refers to manners, means, techniques and procedures for accomplishing a given task including, but not limited to, those manners, means, techniques and procedures either known to, or readily developed from known manners, means, techniques and procedures by practitioners of system architecture and/or computer science and/or electronics and/or biology. Implementation of the method and system according to the embodiments involves performing or completing selected tasks or steps manually, automatically, or a combination thereof. Moreover, according to actual instrumentation and equipment of exemplary embodiments of methods, apparatus and systems of the invention, several selected steps could be implemented by hardware or by software on any operating system of any firmware or a combination thereof. For example, as hardware, selected steps could be implemented as a chip or a circuit. As software, selected steps could be implemented as a plurality of software instructions being executed by a computer using any suitable operating system. In any case, selected steps of the described method/s and system/s could be described as being performed by a data processor, such as a computing platform for executing a plurality of instructions.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS In order to understand the embodiments and to see how it may be carried out in practice, embodiments will now be described, by way of non-limiting example only, with reference to the accompanying figures. In the figures, identical and similar structures, elements or parts thereof that appear in more than one figure are generally labeled with the same or similar references in the figures in which they appear. Dimensions of components and features shown in the figures are chosen primarily for convenience and clarity of presentation and are not necessarily to scale. The attached figures are: Figure 1 schematically shows a model of a first building module, not to scale, in an elevated perspective view; Figure 2 schematically shows the model in another elevated perspective view; Figure 3 schematically shows the model in a side view; 30 Figure 4 is a schematic top view of part of a second building module. Figure 5 is an elevated perspective view of the second building module.

Claims (4)

Claims

1. A first building module comprising: thin long boards and thin short boards; two interwall floor beams and two interwall ceiling beams; two long vertical external wall-beams and two long vertical internal wall-beams, at least two short vertical external wall-beams and at least two short vertical internal wall-beams, each affixed to an interwall floor beam and an interwall ceiling beam; wherein: each long vertical external wall-beam and short vertical external wall-beam, and each long vertical internal wall-beam and short vertical internal wall-beam, attached to same interwall floor beam and interwall ceiling beam, are spaced apart and configured to allow: engaging a thin long board with the long vertical external wall-beams; engaging a thin long board with the long vertical internal wall-beams; engaging a thin short board with the short vertical external wall-beams; engaging a thin short board with the short vertical internal wall-beams; making a wall between the thin long board engaged with the long vertical external wall-beams and the thin short board engaged with the short vertical external wall-beams, and making a wall between the thin long board engaged with the long vertical internal wall-beams and the thin short board engaged with the short vertical internal wall-beams, and affixing each long vertical external wall-beam and long vertical internal wall-beam, short vertical external wall-beam and short vertical internal wall-beam to the same in adjacent first building modules. 2. A second building module comprising: two wing units and a corner unit therebetween; the wing units each comprising: two long vertical external wall-beams, and two long vertical internal wall-beams; two thin long wing boards; the corner unit comprising: two long vertical external wall-beams and two long vertical internal wall-beams, each of the long vertical external wall-beams of the corner unit affixed to a long vertical external wall-beam of a wing unit and each of the long vertical internal wall-beams of the corner unit affixed to a long vertical internal wall-beam of a wing unit; a long corner beam; a plurality of metal bands affixed at one of their ends to the long corner beam, and at another one of their ends to a long vertical external wall-beam; vertical metal rods;

2.U-shaped rods, each welded to all the vertical metal rods, and at their ends to the long vertical external wall-beams, and long vertical internal wall-beams of the corner unit; thin long corner boards; wherein: the long vertical external wall-beams of a wing unit, are spaced apart and configured to allow engaging a thin long wing board therewith; the long vertical internal wall-beams of a wing unit, are spaced apart and configured to allow engaging a thin long wing board therewith; each long vertical external wall-beam of a corner unit and the long corner beam, are spaced apart and configured to allow engaging a thin long corner board therewith; the second building module configured to allow: making a wall between: the engaged long thin wing boards engaged with the long vertical internal wall-beams of the wing units and the engaged long thin wing boards engaged with the long vertical external wall-beams of the wing units and the engaged long thin corner boards engaged with the long vertical external wall-beams of the corner units and the corner beam, and affixing a long vertical external wall-beam and a long vertical internal wall-beam of each wing unit to the same in adjacent first building modules of claim 1.

3. An off-site storey comprising at least four second building modules of claim 2 and at least four first building modules of claim 1.

4. A building comprising a plurality of off-site stories of claim 3 brought to a building site and assembled together.