Note: Descriptions are shown in the official language in which they were submitted.
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TITLE:
Vertical Alignment and levelling of Modular Building Units
DESCRIPTION
Field of the Invention
The invention relates to modular building units for use in the construction of
largely prefabricated offices, hotels and apartment blocks, and buildings of a
similar general nature. Such modular building units are box-like structures
which can be manufactured and fitted-out off site and then transported to a
construction site for final assembly to form the internal rooms of a building.
The invention also relates to a method for the erection of buildings using
such
modular building units, and in particular to the alignment of such a building
and the levelling of the lower or ground floor units:
~5 Background Art
Particularly in the construction of hotels, apartments and student
accommodation it is known to construct the buildings from lightweight building
modules each of which is a skeletal steel shell formed from lightweight
structural steel sections welded into a box-like structure and lined with
2o boarding such as plasterboard, plywood or oriented strand board (OSB).
Each building module is made initially as such a lined shell, and is then
fitted-
out to the desired standard of internal decoration in a factory before being
transported to the final building site for incorporation into a building.
Other
building modules are known, made primarily from wood frames and wood
25 boarding.
At the building site, the modules are hoisted by crane from the lorry or truck
on which they had been transported, and stacked in a vertical and horizontal
array cooperating to form the linked rooms of the final building. For low-rise
3o buildings, the accuracy required in the stacking process is relatively
crude. It
makes very little difiFerence to the final stability of the building whether
the
individual modules are accurately positioned vertically one over the other,
and
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generally it is considered to be adequate for the individual modular building
units to be manipulated into their final positions by hand as they are lowered
by crane. For progressively higher rise buildings, the accuracy of the
vertical
alignment of the individual building units in the array becomes of increasing
importance. Hitherto; however, the accuracy of the stacking has depended
entirely on the skill of the crane driver in being able to hold the topmost
building unit static, while skilled workers manoeuvre it manually into the
correct vertically aligned position, before the tension in the crane cable is
released and the building unit takes up its final position over the lower
units in
the stack.
It is an object of this invention to provide, for such a modular building unit
and
building system, a means for automatically and accurately aligning the
vertically adjacent building units in the stack. By making the alignment
~5 automatic and largely unreliant on the skill of the building workers
manoeuvring the modular building units into position, it is possible to
increase
the height of buildings made from such modular units using unskilled labour,
from a previous practical maximum of about five storeys to from twenty to
thirty storeys.
The invention
The invention comprises a modular building unit as specified in claims 1 to 6
herein. The edge location means, provided by the cooperating location flange
and peripheral recess of vertically adjacent modules, makes it possible
accurately to position the modular building units one above the other in the
array with the minimum reliance on skilled labour. Preferably the peripheral
recess has an inside side wall which slopes upwardly and inwardly relative to
the building module, to guide the vertically adjacent building module into
position when stacking the modules one above the other during the erection
of a building therefrom. Therefore the erection team manhandling the module
into position as it is lowered, by crane simply have to guide the module being
hoisted into position to within about two or three centimetres of its final
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position, and the sloping inside side wall of the peripheral recess is
sufFicient
to guide the module into its precise final position.
The building modules according to the invention may be constructed as
described and claimed in copending Patent Application No. W068004 filed
herewith and linked together horizontally and vertically as described in
W068006 filed herewith. They may be made from a lined skeletal shell of
structural building elements as described and claimed in copending Patent
Application No. W068007 filed herewith.
The invention also provides a levelling unit for a building module according
to
the invention, as specified in claim 7 herein. Finally, the invention provides
a
method of building as specified in claim 8 herein.
Drawings
Figure 1 is a perspective view of a modular building unit according to the
invention;
Figure 2 is a section taken along the line A-A of a top corner of the building
unit of Figure 1;
2o Figure 3 is a section taken along the line B-B through a bottom corner of
the
building unit of Figure 1; and
Figure 4 is a perspective view of a levelling unit for use with the modular
building unit of Figures 1 to 3.
Figure 1 is a perspective view of a complete building module 1, constructed
according to my copending Patent Application No W068004 and provided in
addition with edge location means in accordance with this invention. The
module comprises four walls, a floor and a roof. One end wall is shown in
Figure 1 as having a window. The opposite end wall (not visible) would have
3o a door. The window wall would be on the outside of the assembled building
and the door wall would be on the inside, with the doors opening for example
onto a corridor providing access to any of the modules in a given row.
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Around the outer edge of the top of the module 1 is a peripheral recess which
is defined by a corner strip 2, as shown in Figure 2. The corner strip 2 is
made from lightweight cold-formed structural steel by a folding or creasing
operation, and comprises a front face 2a, a lower top face 2b, an inclined
face
2c and an upper top face 2d. The front face 2a is secured to the structural
uprights of the modular building unit, for example by spot welding or plug
welding. The lower top face 2b lies over the horizontally aligned top ends of
those structural uprights. Between the lower top face 2b and the inclined face
2c is formed the peripheral recess which extends around all four edges of the
top of the module 1.
The top of the module 1 is externally boarded with load-bearing panels 3
which are strong enough to bear the weight of the construction team members
~5 who are employed to erect a building from a number of such modular units.
The upper top face 2d of the corner strip 2 ties in a recess formed in the top
of
the load-bearing panels 3, and over the upper top face 2d is adhered a strip 4
of acoustic insulation, for example a strip of rubber or efastomeric material
such as high density neoprene foam. Another such strip 5 of acoustic
2o insulation is adhered over the lower top face 2b of the corner strip 2, so
as to
provide good acoustic insulation between vertically adjacent stacked modules
1. An alternative sound insulation barrier could be obtained by laying the
corner strip 2 over a layer of rubber or elastomeric or other sound-absorbing
Ilining.
Figure 3 shows the detail of the bottom periphery of each module 1, and also
shows how that bottom detail cooperates with the peripheral recess around
the top edge of the module vertically beneath it in the final building. That
module beneath is shown in Figure 3 in broken line, but is exactly as
3o described above with reference to Figure 2. In Figure 3 the strips 4 and 5
of
acoustic insulation are shown compressed, as they would be in practice, by
the weight of the module or modules 1 vertically above.
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The bottom detail ofi the module 1 is provided by a corner strip cold-formed
so
as to define a downwardly extending locating flange 6 into which the
structural
uprights (not shown) of the module rest. An outer wall of the flange 6 extends
upwardly as an outside wall portion 7 of the corner strip, which is secured to
the outside of the skeletal building module 1 by spot welding or plug welding
for example. The inner wall of the flange 6 is bent to follow the angle of the
inclined face 2c ofi the top corner strip 2, terminating in a bottom plate
portion
8 which is welded to the bottoms of an array of cross-beams (not shown)
1o which support the filoor of the module 1. Although welding has been
specified
as the securing method of choice in the particular example illustrated, other
securing methods such as bolts, rivets or even adhesive are feasible
alternatives depending on the permanence of the intended building and the
stresses to which it is expected to be exposed.
When erecting a building firom a number of modules according to the
invention, a lowermost array of modules 1 is first manoeuvred into position
and anchored to foundations. Then one by one the modules 1 of the next
storey are hoisted into position by crane. As the modules 1 are lowered by
2o the crane operator, they are pushed into position by a crew. The edge
location provides accurate positioning of the modules on the modules of the
floor below, and the workmen can walk fireely on the roofs of the ground floor
array of modules 1 because the top boarding 3 is load-bearing.
When each upper storey module 1 is approximately in position, the crane
driver lowers it its last few centimetres, and the inclined faces 2c guide it
gently but accurately into register with the module below.
The assembled modules may be locked together as described arid claimed in
3o my copending Patent Application No. W068006. Aiternativeiy a continuous
cable may be threaded through the wall cavities defined by mutually aligned
vertical structural uprights of successive storeys of the building and
tensioned
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as a continuous cable run from the building foundations to roof, to lock
together fihe modules vertically. Instead of a cable, a series of
interconnected
tubes or rods may be used, each one storey in height, as described in my
copending Application No W068007. Similar interconnected tubes or rods
may be used across the building in the horizontal plane, but generally it will
be
sufficient to connect the modules together horizontally using gutter plates
straddling the roves of horizontally adjacent modules, which for sound
insulation purposes are usually stacked with a small horizontal gap
therebetween. The gutter plates not only tie the adjacent modules together
1o horizontally but also prevent the ingress of rain between adjacent modules
during erection.
Figure 4 shows a levelling unit which in practice is laid over the foundations
or
any given course of a building and accurately levelled before the next courses
of building modules are hoisted into position. The levelling unit of Figure 4
is
given the general reference 10 and comprises a peripheral structure of C-
sections 11, each made from lightweight cold-formed structural steel.
Running in parallel between the C-sections 11 forming the long edges of the
base levelling unit 10 are an array of C-section cross-beams 12, each
2o connected to the corresponding C-section peripheral beam 11 in exactly the
same way as the floor and ceiling cross-beams are connected in the building
modules of Figures 1 to 3. For additional rigidity, spacers (not shown) of C-
section may be welded at staggered intervals between adjacent pairs of
cross-beams 12, to create an overall rigid assembly. If desired, although not
~5 shown in Figure 4, that assembly can be clad over its top surface with load-
bearing flooring similar to the boarding 3 of Figure 2.
Around the outside edge of the base levelling unit 10 (although again not
shown in Figure 4) is a corner strip defining a peripheral recess exactly the
3o same as the corner strip 2 described and illustrated with reference to
Figure 2
around the top of each complete building module according to the invention.
Thus Figure 2 could equally be a section through one of the edges of the base
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levelling unit 10 of Figure 4, except that the line in Figure 2 referenced 1
and
indicating the building module would in fact indicate the outside wall of the
levelling unit 10 and the C-section peripheral members 11.
In use, it is far easier to handle a levelling unit 10 than a complete fitted-
out
building module 1. Therefore after preparing the foundations of the building,
one such levelling unit 10 is placed in position to define the footprint of
each
room to be created on successive floors of the finished building. Levelling of
the individual levelling units 10 can be achieved by the insertion of metal
shims or by the use of screinr jacks, and is carried out with precision until
an
accurate level base or lower level course is created for the upper courses of
the individual building modules 1 of the finished building. As each levelling
unit 10 is accurately positioned and levelled, it may be secured to the
foundations or ground level structure by anchor bolts, tie straps or other
15 appropriate anchorage means (not shown) so that the base course for the
upper storeys of the building is both accurately levelled and secured to the
foundations or ground level structure.
Thereafter, individual building modules 10 are hoisted into position by a
crane
and are located by the edge recesses in the levelling units 10, exactly as
described above in relation to the accurate assembly of the upper storeys of
the building.
