Interlocking Door Frame Panel for Modular Buildings
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Solution Overview
Problem
Modular building units face challenges in integrating traditional door assemblies without compromising structural integrity, appearance, or requiring expensive custom designs, as standard door installations often necessitate cutting wall panels, leading to unfinished looks and air leaks.
Innovation Solution
An interlocking door frame and wall panel system with mating male and female edges allows for easy integration of a traditional steel door frame without cutting the wall panels, maintaining a clean appearance and structural integrity, while being transportable and customizable.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of manufacture
If a standard steel door frame is installed by cutting wall panels, then the door assembly can be integrated into the modular building unit, but the appearance becomes unfinished and structural integrity is weakened
Solution Approach 1:
The door assembly is segmented into a separate panel that integrates the door frame within its structure, rather than cutting the wall panel. This allows the door frame to be installed without compromising the integrity of the wall panels, while maintaining modular assembly ease.
Solution Approach 2:
The door frame is nested within the door panel structure, creating an integrated assembly that functions as a complete unit. This nested configuration allows the door frame to be housed within the panel without requiring cuts to the wall panels, preserving both strength and appearance.
2Ease of manufacture
If a standard steel door frame is installed by cutting wall panels, then the door assembly can be integrated, but air leaks occur through gaps
Solution Approach 1:
The door frame is nested within the door panel, creating an integrated sealed assembly. This configuration eliminates gaps between the door frame and wall panels, preventing air leaks while maintaining ease of integration into the modular building unit.
Solution Approach 2:
The door frame and door panel are merged into a single integrated assembly with continuous sealing. This combining of elements eliminates the gaps that would otherwise allow air leakage, while preserving the modular installation process.
3Strength
If a custom aluminum door assembly is used to avoid cutting wall panels, then appearance and structural integrity are improved, but cost and complexity increase significantly
Solution Approach 1:
The door panel is designed as a universal component that can accommodate standard steel door frames without requiring custom aluminum designs. This multi-functional panel structure serves both aesthetic and structural purposes, eliminating the need for expensive custom tooling while maintaining strength and appearance.
Solution Approach 2:
The door panel structure replicates the successful tongue-and-groove connection design used in wall panels, creating a familiar and proven configuration. This copying of the proven connection method eliminates the need for complex custom designs while maintaining structural integrity and aesthetic consistency.
4Ease of manufacture
If traditional door installation methods are used with cutting, then cost is reduced, but appearance and sealing are compromised
Solution Approach 1:
The door assembly is segmented into a separate panel that integrates the door frame, allowing standard steel frames to be used without cutting wall panels. This maintains cost-effectiveness while achieving a clean, finished appearance through the integrated panel design.
Solution Approach 2:
The door panel uses the same tongue-and-groove connection design as wall panels, creating visual consistency and a clean appearance. This copying of the proven design achieves aesthetic goals without requiring expensive custom solutions, maintaining cost-effectiveness.
Data Source
AI summary
Disclosed is a system of interlocking door frame and wall panels for modular building units. Both the door frame panel and the wall panels are provided for easy installation into the skeletal frame of the modular building unit, and are provided with mating male and female connecting edges on opposite sides of each panel. This allows the door frame panel to mate with an adjacent wall panel in the same manner in which adjacent wall panels mate with one another, ensuring a clean, finished appearance for the connecting edges, a strong, reinforced frame having long durability, and a connection having the same physical, structural integrity as the connections between adjacent wall panel units. The door frame panel itself is particularly configured to receive a traditional, commercially available steel door frame and door assembly, but allows fitment of such commercially available steel door frame and door assembly without cutting a wall panel to receive that frame.