Wood-Frame Building Modules for Faster Platform Assembly
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Solution Overview
Problem
Construction of extensive platforms in wood framed buildings is labor-intensive and inefficient, with limited commercial success of prefabricated modular panels, particularly for floors, ceilings, and roofs.
Innovation Solution
The use of expeditiously fabricated modules with standardized layouts for floors, walls, and roofs, where each module's longitudinal axis is perpendicular to the building's length axis, allowing for automated assembly and improved structural integrity, and incorporating ceiling joists and roof rafters parallel to the building's length axis.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Productivity
If prefabricated modular panels are used for extensive platforms, then assembly speed and labor efficiency are improved, but structural complexity and manufacturing difficulty increase
Solution Approach 1:
The building frame is divided into standardized modular panels that can be prefabricated separately and then assembled. Each panel is a self-contained unit with standardized connections, allowing parallel manufacturing and reducing on-site labor while maintaining structural integrity through consistent modular design.
Solution Approach 2:
The modular panels are designed with universal standardized connections and interfaces that can be used across different panel types and building configurations. This universality simplifies manufacturing tooling and assembly procedures while enabling flexible adaptation to various structural requirements without increasing complexity.
2Ease of manufacture
If conventional wood framing methods are used, then manufacturing simplicity is maintained, but labor costs and construction time increase
Solution Approach 1:
The modular panels are prefabricated in advance with all structural components pre-assembled and connected using standardized joints. This preliminary manufacturing action transfers the complexity from on-site construction to off-site factory production, maintaining manufacturing simplicity while dramatically improving construction efficiency and reducing labor requirements.
3Extent of automation
If standardized module layouts are implemented, then assembly automation and labor costs are reduced, but design flexibility and adaptability decrease
Solution Approach 1:
The standardized modular panel system incorporates dynamic assembly capabilities where panels can be configured in various arrangements and orientations. The standardized connections allow for flexible assembly patterns that can adapt to different building forms and requirements while maintaining the benefits of automation and standardization through consistent connection interfaces.
Data Source
AI summary
A method of constructing a frame of a wood frame building structure is shown and described. The method entails fabricating modules establishing nominally flat structural platforms for expediting assembly of floors, walls, ceilings, and a roof. These modules provide structural frames enabling appropriate finishing materials to be affixed thereto. The finishing materials provide continuous, flat surfaces, with exceptions for penetrations. The method includes assembling the modules such that a longitudinal axis of each model is parallel to those of other modules throughout the frame and perpendicular to a building length axis. Also, each module includes ceiling joists, floor joists, and roof rafters, as appropriate, such joists and roof rafters installed parallel to the building length axis and therefore, perpendicular to the joists and roof rafters. This method minimizes assembly costs of modules and of the framing, while retaining conventional framing performance.