Prefabricated Bathroom Box Elements
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Solution Overview
Problem
Prefabricated bathrooms built with steel cassettes and gypsum boards are heavy and labor-intensive to tile, leading to high costs and installation challenges.
Innovation Solution
Manufacturing bathrooms using box-shaped elements with gypsum boards on the inner surfaces, allowing for easy painting and hiding installations like wires and pipes, and using a concrete floor with a durable covering, along with lifting brackets for efficient transport and minimal on-site installation.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Strength
If walls are built with steel cassettes and covered with gypsum boards and tiles, then the bathroom structure is stiffened and insulated, but the bathroom becomes heavy and tile mounting becomes labor-intensive and expensive
Solution Approach 1:
The patent extracts the tile covering from the interior surface and replaces it with exterior insulation layers (rigid foam insulation) on the exterior side of the steel cassette walls. This eliminates the heavy tile mounting process while maintaining thermal insulation performance, directly resolving the contradiction between structural stiffness and weight.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent uses composite material construction by combining steel cassettes with rigid foam insulation panels and exterior cladding materials. This composite structure provides the necessary structural stiffness and insulation properties without the weight penalty of traditional interior tiling, achieving both strength requirements and weight reduction.
2Temperature
If tiles are mounted on interior surfaces for insulation and aesthetics, then the bathroom achieves desired thermal properties, but the manufacturing and installation costs increase significantly
Solution Approach 1:
The patent inverts the traditional approach by placing the insulation and finishing layers on the exterior side of the steel cassette walls rather than the interior side. This reversal eliminates complex interior tiling work while achieving the same thermal insulation effect, dramatically reducing manufacturing and installation costs.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent incorporates insulation panels and exterior cladding as pre-fabricated components that are attached to the steel cassettes before final assembly. This preliminary preparation of insulation and finishing layers simplifies the overall manufacturing process and reduces on-site installation time and cost.
3Ease of repair
If installations are exposed in the bathroom, then wiring and piping are accessible for maintenance, but the bathroom appearance is compromised and additional finishing work is required
Solution Approach 1:
The patent nests the wiring and piping installations within the wall cavity formed by the steel cassette structure, with conduits and access points integrated into the wall assembly. This nested arrangement keeps installations accessible for maintenance while maintaining a clean, finished appearance without requiring additional complex finishing work.
Data Source
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AI summary
A prefabricated bathroom (1) is disclosed, wherein the walls (4,5) and the ceiling (3) have been manufactured by means of box-shaped elements (6), which are closed on the side facing the bathroom and which are open on the side facing away from the bathroom, wherein the elements on the side facing the bathroom are being covered with gypsum boards (11). Moreover, a method for the manufacture of such a prefabricated bathroom (1) is disclosed.