WO2001044594A2 - Building system - Google Patents

Abstract

A building system comprising prefabricated wall sections (14) forming exterior walls. Each wall section (14) comprises a rigid, rectangular peripheral metal frame (15) comprising parallel composite side supports (18). The frame (15) further comprises a pair of coextensive, parallel, spaced apart rectangular sub-frames (16) which comprise a pair of opposed side members (20), a top member (17) and a bottom member (19). Each composite side support (18) comprises a side member (20) from a first of said pair of sub-frams (16), and another side member (20) from a second of said pair of sub-frames (16). The system further comprises connecting means (24, 30) joining the wall sections together. A second embodiment of the building system utilises wall sections comprising a rectangular panel of rigid foam insulation (52) having relatively narrow end portions (56) of reduced thickness which are provided with a pair of grooves (58) extending through the height of the panel. One groove is provided on each of the exterior and interior faces of the panel; a pair of vertical structural C-shaped members (60) at opposite ends of the panels have inwardly extending ends (66) embedded in the grooves.

Description

BUILDING SYSTEM

This invention relates to designs, materials, and procedures to create high-quality, low-cost buildings which are quick and easy to erect . The buildings comprise manufactured components which may be assembled rapidly by unskilled labour, typically within three to five days, yielding a building that is comparable in appearance and superior in quality to a building produced by traditional building methods.

There is a pressing world-wide need for housing. The present demand is for 250 million units. It is believed that traditional building methods will never address this need. A construction method is required that is efficient and economical, which produces housing that is acceptable and durable.

Much of this housing is required in remote areas, with extremes of climate, lack of skilled labour, and no infrastructure. Typically, this would be much of the Third World, and communities in the arctic or the antarctic. While these communities are cutoff by vast distances, television makes them aware of the standards of living in the rest of the world, a standard to which they aspire. Thus they will not be satisfied by an inferior product. Transport costs to such areas are very large and are a major consideration in providing a product .

There is an attempt to address this market by providing pre- manufactured housing. Some of the present offerings are technologically advanced but are extremely inflexible; they cannot be adapted to individual wishes. Some of these buildings also have a strange space-age appearance which is not culturally acceptable. At a lower level of technology more flexibility may be achieved, but at this level efficiency and economy are reduced, so there is little advantage over traditional construction methods.

Traditional construction methods for the provision of frame housing, whether utilizing wood or metal studs, usually involves delivery of raw building materials to the building site and subsequent building on the building site of open work frames for each wall. The open work frames are then, before or after erection, provided with cladding. Insulation is usually provided after erection either in recesses between studs and/or as foam panels applied flush onto the frame. Vapour barrier is also applied independently after erection of the frames. Electrical wiring runs to the exterior of the vapour barrier into which cuts must be made for socket access. In all the erection of a building from raw materials is a skilled job for a craftsman.

Various prefabricated buildings have been proposed. Where these are reasonably low cost they tend to be "fit-together" units such as half houses which tend to be large and require specialized transport. Often such units exceed the sizes allowed on the roads and special provisions for their transport must also be made. Other prefabricated buildings and parts thereof have also been proposed, usually for temporary structures which may be repeatedly assembled and disassembled.

The basic philosophy of this invention is to manufacture building components which are so technologically advanced they reduce to a minimum the tasks that are needed to assemble them on- site. Thus all electrical and plumbing work, all measuring and cutting, fitting and testing, are done and checked in the factory. Despite this, the system offers considerable flexibility of lay out .

U.S. Patent No. 5,970,672 issued October 26, 1999, to Gerald Robinson and assigned to Amisk Technologies Inc. provides one solution to the problem.

The building of that U.S. patent may have a higher insulation level (R-30) and is lighter than any other building of similar size, so the components are easy to transport. They may be assembled by an unskilled staff, with no left-over waste to dispose of. The building of said patent includes a plurality of prefabricated building panels each having a rigid peripheral metal frame about a slab of foam insulation. Each frame side comprises a pair of elongate metal C-sections, adjacent pairs of adjoining frames forming load bearing members for roof trusses. C-sections of each pair are spaced apart by plastic spacing and latching strips which serve the dual purpose of spacing the C-sections apart to form a thermal break and latching adjacent wall panels together.

It has now surprisingly been discovered that a) it is not necessary to utilize plastic foam slabs to impart rigidity to the wall panels, and b) it is not necessary to link adjacent panels together through elongate plastic spacing and latching strips.

According to the invention there is provided a building system for a building having at least one room therein, the system comprising: a plurality of prefabricated wall sections to form exterior walls when aligned with a side edge of one section abutting a side edge of an adjacent section, the height of a section, when erected, generally corresponding to the height of said room, and each wall section including a rigid peripheral metal frame filled with insulation, each peripheral metal frame comprising a pair of coextensive, parallel, spaced apart sub- frames, connectable to one another in fixed relationship through top connecting means at top margins of said sub-frames and through bottom connecting means at bottom margins of said sub-frames, each peripheral metal frame including parallel composite side supports to be vertical when the wall section is erected, each parallel composite side support comprising one sub-frame side member from a first of said pair of sub-frames and another sub-frame side member from a second of said pair of sub-frames, each of the top connecting means and the bottom connecting means acting to connect a composite, side support of one wall section to a composite side support of an adjoining wall section to form a load bearing member comprised by four sub-frame side members.

The insulation may conveniently be fibreglass batting. It may be retained in place within the frame at least partly by a tight fit within the frame. However, each sub-frame side member may be an elongate metal C-section comprising a web and two legs, the legs extending inwardly of the peripheral frame possibly to grip edge portions of fibre glass batting.

The top and bottom connection means may comprise a top plate and a bottom plate bolted or otherwise secured to respective top and bottom elongate sub-frame members of the sub- frames. Alternatively or additionally, the top and bottom sub-frame members may be connected through a spacer strip between them. Such spacer strip may be plastic or wood to provide thermal insulation between the frames .

A plastic latching or thermal break strip or other insulation may be inserted between the sub-frame side members of each composite side support, for example as set out in U.S. Patent No. 5,970,672. However, such latching and thermal break strip is generally unnecessary. The rigid wall sections may be adequately held tightly together by ensuring that the top and bottom connecting means extend between adjoining wall section to connect them together. When the insulation is fibreglass batting it will tend to expand into the space between sub-frame side members.

As set out in U.S. Patent No. 5,970,672, the building system may include roof trusses, ceiling panels, platforms, interior partitioning, hingeable tracking for the interior partitioning, etc .

The present invention may provide significant advantages in cost of the product in that fiberglass batting is considerably less expensive than the plastic foam slabs utilized in the system of

U.S. Patent No. 5,970,672 even although vapour barrier should be utilized with the fibre glass batting.

It was surprising to the present inventor that wall sections of suitable rigidity and strength could be provided without the bracing provided by the foam slab and without special attention to heavy duty vertical load bearing members. Moreover, the elimination of the latching strip saves expenditure.

A further advantage of the present invention is that manufacture of the wall sections may be a two step process. For shipping into hard to reach places for which transport space is limited, baled, compressed fibreglass batting and the sub- frame side members and top and bottom members may be shipped, disassembled to an interim assembly station where the sub-frames and possibly the main frames may be assembled ready for erection into a building.

To act as an additional support for fibreglass batting, an inner cladding skin, e.g. plywood sheet or fibreboard sheet, may be added at this time. Such skin may add additional bracing which may be reassuring to the user.

A further advantage due to the use of fibreglass batting is that it is not necessary to use furring channel to route the electrical wiring as was the case in the system of U.S. Patent No. 5,970,672.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The invention will now be described, by way of example only, with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which:

Figure 1 is a pictorial representation of a building erected utilizing a system according to a first embodiment of the invention having premanufactured structural wall sections;

Figure 2 shows the arrangement of sub-frames in the building of Figure 1;

Figure 3 shows wall sections connected together edgewise;

Figure 4 shows a section through two adjoining wall sections;

Figure 5 is a perspective view of a preferred building panel according to a second preferred embodiment of the present invention, taken from the interior side of the panel with a portion of one support member cut away;

Figure 6 is a cross-sectional view along line VI - VI of Figure 5;

Figure 7 is a cross-sectional view in the same plane as Figure 6 showing a pair of building panels according to the second embodiment joined end to end; and

Figure 8 is a perspective view of a pair of building panels according to the second embodiment joined end to end to form a portion of an exterior wall, taken from the interior of the wall.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

Figure 1 shows the general structural layout for a building utilizing the building system according to the invention. Roof trusses 10 which may be fabricated from cold rolled steel sections rest on composite load bearing members 12 of wall sections 14.

Each wall section 14 comprises a rigid peripheral frame 15, itself comprising a pair of parallel, coextensive, spaced apart sub-frames 16 (see Figure 2) formed from elongate metal members. The sides 18 of the rigid peripheral frame 15 are parallel to one another in the plane of the frame 15, and form composite side supports to be vertical when the wall section 14 is erected.

Each parallel composite side support 18 comprises spaced apart parallel sub-frame side members 20. Adjoining wall sections 14 meet so that one composite side support 18 of one wall section 14 is adjacent a composite side support member 18 of the adjoining wall section 14, as shown in Figure 3. These two composite side supports 18, together comprising four sub-frame side members 20, form a composite load bearing member 12. Roof trusses 10 bear downwardly only on these composite load bearing members 12.

The sub-frames 16 of each frame 15 are connected one to the other along their top and bottom edges. Conveniently, a top plate U-channel 24 (see Figure 3) is provided having a top plate web 26 extending over the top members 17 of both sub-frames 16. Legs 28 of the U-channel 24 extend downwardly to hold upper margins of the sub-frame 16 in the channel 24. One of the sub-frames 16 may be bolted to one leg 28 of the U-channel 24 and the other sub- frame 16 may be bolted to the other leg 28 of the U-channel 24 to provide some clearance between the sub-frames 16. Similarly, a bottom plate U-channel 30 may be provided having a bottom plate web 32 and upstanding legs 34. Bottom members 19 of the sub-frames 16 fit into the bottom plate U-channel 30 and are bolted to legs 34 in a similar manner to that described above with reference to top plate U-channel 24.

Alternatively or additionally, a spacer strip 36 (see Figure 2) may be provided between the top and bottom margins of the sub- frame 16 and bolted or otherwise secured therebetween. The spacer strip 36 shown in Figure 2 extends along, and separates, the bottom margins of the sub-frames 16.

The legs 28 of top plate U-channel 24 (or individual plates 28 when the top plate is a U-channel) and legs 34 of bottom plate U-channel 30 (or individual plates 34) extend over the full length of any wall which is to be erected, thus they serve to connect the wall sections 14 together. A leg 28 is bolted to the sub-frame 16 of one wall section 14 and also to a sub- frame 16 of an adjoining wall section 14. It may be possible to manually fit the wall sections sufficiently tightly together for bolting of the sub- frames 16 to the top plate 24. However, it may be preferred to fit the wall sections 14 together more tightly using a clinching tool such as that described and claimed in Canadian Patent Application No. 2,272,113 filed May 13, 1999 of which the inventor is John Fourdraine . Alternatively, any progressive tightening system may be used for tightening the wall sections one against the other.

Conveniently, the sub-frame side members 20 and top and bottom members 17 and 19 are comprised of cold rolled galvanized steel C- sections. Mouths of all the C-sections whether of the sub-frame side members 20 or of the side-frame top and bottom members 17 and 19 may be directed inwardly of the frame so that arms 40, 41 of the C-sections may be bolted to respective top and bottom plates 24, 30 and inner arms of the C-sections may be secured to a spacer strip 36.

Fibreglass batting 44 is located to fill the space within the frame 15 and the whole thickness thereof from an outer face of one sub- frame 16 to the outer face of the other sub- frame 16. The fibreglass batting 44 may also spread into the space between the C-sections to enhance the air thermal break therebetween.

When the building system is to be transported under difficult conditions, it may be desirable to utilize transport space even more efficiently than is normal. When circumstances are thus, the sub-frame side members 20 and the top and bottom members 17, 19 may be cut to length and drilled for any necessary or desirable bolts. They may be then shipped to a subassembly station in this condition and assembled into wall sections 14 at the subassembly station. Fibreglass batting may be shipped in compressed baled condition and fitted into the wall sections at the subassembly station. As an additional support for the fibreglass batting, it may be desirable to fit an inner skin 46 of outer cladding over one outer face of a sub-frame 16 to be coextensive with it. The inner skin 46 of the outer cladding may conveniently be plywood, particle board, etc.

A second embodiment of the invention is illustrated in Figures

5 to 8. The second embodiment comprises a building system incorporating improved wall sections 50 having high strength and insulating properties, but which are very economical in their use of materials.

Each wall section 50 is comprised of a rectangular foam panel 52 of rigid foam insulation having a main body portion 54 and relatively narrow end portions 56. The end portions 56 are of reduced thickness relative to the main body portion 54. Preferably, the exterior faces of the end portions 56 are flush with the exterior face of the main body portion 54, and the interior faces of the end portions 56 are spaced toward the exterior of the wall section 50 from the interior face of the main body portion 54.

Each end portion 56 is provided with a pair of grooves 58 extending through the entire height of the panel 52, one groove 58 being provided on each of the exterior and interior faces of the panel 52. The grooves 58 of each pair are spaced an equal distance from the ends of the panel 52. The wall section 50 further comprises a pair of metal structural members 60, preferably formed from cold rolled galvanized steel C-sections. One structural member 60 is provided at each end of the panel 52 and extends along the entire height thereof. As shown in Figure 6, each structural member 60 comprises a central bight portion 62 having a pair of arms 64 extending therefrom at right angles. The bight portion 62 extends across the entire thickness of end portion 56 and the arms 64 extend along the respective interior and exterior faces of the end portion 56.

As shown, the arms 64 of each structural member 60 have inwardly extending ends 66 distal from the bight portion 62, the ends 66 extending inwardly toward each other and preferably being at right angles to the arms 64. The ends 66 are embedded in grooves 58, thereby securing the structural member 60 to the panel 52. Preferably, the wall section 50 is assembled by first forming the grooves 58 in the end portions 56, and then sliding the structural members 60 over the end portions 56 with the inwardly extending ends 66 of the structural members 60 engaged in the grooves 58.

Figures 7 and 8 illustrate how an exterior wall is formed by joining adjacent wall sections 50 end to end with the structural members 60 of adjoining wall sections 50 abutting one another, and with gaps 68 being formed on the interior of the wall section by end sections 56 of reduced thickness. Preferably, the wall sections 50 may be secured together by a clinching tool as described and claimed in Canadian Patent Application No. 2,272,113, filed May 13, 1999, of which the inventor is John Fourdraine . Accordingly, the width of the gap 68 is sufficient to allow the clinching tool disclosed therein to gain access to structural members 60 and to clinch the structural members 60 together with a fastener 70. Alternate fastening means, such as a plate (not shown) screwed to the arms 64 of abutting structural members 60, may be used to connect adjacent panels.

Once the wall sections 50 are connected as shown in Figure 7, the gap 68 is filled by a block of rigid foam insulation 72. The foam block 72 is preferably adhered to the edges of the gap 68 by an adhesive material, for example caulking, which also ensures that the joints between the foam block 72 and the remainder of the insulating panel 52 are air tight. Thus, the building system according to the second preferred embodiment provides an effective thermal break between the exterior and the interior surfaces of the exterior walls.

The support members 60 of adjacent wall sections 50, connected together as discussed above, are vertical when a wall section comprised of wall sections 50 is erected. The connected support members 60 of adjacent wall sections 50 form composite load bearing members 72 which provide support for roof trusses such as those described in connection with the first preferred embodiment .

In order to provide a surface on top of the wall section for attachment of roof trusses, a U-channel may be provided on top of the wall. For example, the U-channel may comprise a short U- channel section 74 as shown in Figure 8 which extends over a single load bearing member 72 or may comprise a U-channel such as channel 24 described above which spans the distance between two or more load bearing members 72.

A bottom U-channel similar to channel 30 described above with reference to the first preferred embodiment may also be provided to retain the bottom of the wall sections 50. However, rather than utilizing a U-channel, it may be preferred to utilize an angle iron 76 as shown in Figure 8 having a horizontal web 78 secured to the building platform and a vertical web 80 positioned so as to abut and retain the exterior face of the wall sections 50.

It may also be preferred to provide metal support members on the interior and/or exterior faces of the wall sections intermediate the ends . Such metal support members would be embedded in the foam panel 52 and would be vertical when the wall section is erected to provide surfaces for attachment of interior or exterior cladding or for exterior brick veneer. Such intermediate support members may not be required where the wall sections are relatively narrow, for example about 24 inches, but would be required where the wall sections are greater in length, for example 48 inches. For example, Figure 8 shows an U-channel 82 embedded in the foam panel 52 about midway between its ends, which may be used to support interior cladding or the like.

Although the invention has been described in connection with certain preferred embodiments, it is not limited thereto. Rather, the invention includes all embodiments which may fall within the scope of the following claims.

Claims

What is claimed is:

1. A building system for constructing a building having at least one room therein, the system comprising:

(a) a plurality of prefabricated wall sections to form exterior walls, each of the wall sections comprising a rigid, rectangular peripheral metal frame comprising a pair of opposed side edges, a top edge and a bottom edge, and having a height, when erected, generally corresponding to a height of said room, the rigid peripheral frame including parallel composite side supports extending along said side edges to be vertical when the wall section is erected; and

(b) connecting means to join said plurality of said wall sections together in fixed relationship to one another, such that side edges of adjacent wall sections abut one another;

wherein each said rigid peripheral frame comprises a pair of coextensive, parallel, spaced apart sub- frames, each sub- frame being rectangular and comprising a pair of opposed side members, a top member and a bottom member; and each composite side support comprises a side member from a first of said pair of sub- frames, and another side member from a second of said pair of sub-frames, such that when the wall sections are joined together, a plurality of load bearing members are formed, each of which extends along the abutting side edges of adjacent wall sections and is comprised of four of said side members .

2. The building system of claim 1, wherein said wall sections further comprise insulation filling a space between said sub- frames .

3. The building system of claim 1, wherein said connecting means comprise top connecting means extending along the top edges of the peripheral metal frames and bottom connecting means extending along the bottom edges of the peripheral metal frames .

4. The building system of claim 3, wherein the top connecting means comprises a channel of U-shaped cross-section having a top plate web extendable over the top of both sub-frames of each said rigid peripheral frame and a pair of legs extending from the top plate web to hold the upper edge of the rigid peripheral frame in place; and the bottom connecting means comprises a channel of U- shaped cross-section having a bottom plate web extendable over the bottom of both sub-frames of each said rigid peripheral frame and a pair of legs extending from the bottom plate web to hold the lower edge of the rigid peripheral frame in place.

5. The building system of claim 4, further comprising fastening means to secure the top and bottom members to the top connecting means and the bottom connecting means, respectively.

6. The building system of claim 1, further comprising at least one spacer strip extending between the sub-frames of one or more of said rigid peripheral frames.

7. The building system of claim 6, wherein each said spacer strip is generally parallel to the top and bottom members of the sub- frame and is secured between either the top members or the bottom members .

8. The building system of claim 3, wherein each of the top connecting means and the bottom connecting means have a length sufficient to extend over the full length of one of said exterior walls .

9. The building system of claim 1, wherein the top members, bottom members and side members of the sub-frames comprise steel C-sections having mouths defined by a pair of parallel arms, the mouths being directed inwardly of the sub-frame.

10. The building system of claim 9, wherein the arms of the top and bottom members are secured to the arms of the side members in each said sub-frame.

11. A prefabricated wall section to form at least part of an exterior wall of a building, comprising a rigid, rectangular peripheral metal frame comprising a pair of opposed side edges, a top edge and a bottom edge, the rigid peripheral frame including parallel composite side supports extending along said side edges to be vertical when the wall section is erected, wherein each said rigid peripheral frame comprises a pair of coextensive, parallel, spaced apart sub- frames, each sub-frame being rectangular and comprising a pair of opposed side members, a top member and a bottom member; and each composite side support comprises a side member from a first of said pair of sub-frames, and another side member from a second of said pair of sub-frames, such that when two said wall sections are joined together, a load bearing member is formed along the abutting side edges of adjacent wall sections and is comprised of four of said side members.

12. A building system for constructing a building having at least one room therein, the system comprising a plurality of prefabricated wall sections to form exterior walls, each of the wall sections comprising:

(a) a rectangular panel of rigid foam insulation having a main body portion, a pair of relatively narrow end portions at its opposite ends, an exterior face and an interior face, the panel having a height generally corresponding to a height of said room and the end portions being of reduced thickness relative to the main body portion, each end portion being provided with a pair of grooves extending through the entire height of the panel, one groove being provided on each of the exterior and interior faces of the panel; and

(b) a pair of metal structural members to be vertical when the wall section is erected, one said structural member being provided at each end of the panel and extending along the entire height of the panel, each said structural member comprising a central bight portion having a pair of arms extending therefrom at right angles, the bight portion extending across the entire thickness of one said end portion and the arms extending along the respective interior and exterior faces of the end portion, the arms having inwardly extending ends distal from the bight portion, the ends extending inwardly toward each other and being embedded in a pair of said grooves of the end portion.

13. The building system of claim 12, wherein the end portions of the panel have an interior surface and an exterior surface, the exterior surface being substantially coplanar with the exterior face of the panel, and the interior surface being spaced from the interior face of the panel, such that when said wall sections are assembled end to end with the structural members of adjacent panels abutting one another, a gap is formed on the interior faces of the assembled wall sections proximate the abutting structural members.

14. The building system of claim 13, further comprising a plurality of blocks comprised of rigid foam insulation to fill said gaps.

15. The building system of claim 12, further comprising connecting means to join said plurality of said wall sections together in fixed relationship to one another with said structural members abutting one another.

16. The building system of claim 12, wherein intermediate support members are provided intermediate the ends of the wall section, the intermediate support members to be vertical when the wall section is erected and being embedded in the panel and having a surface substantially flush with one of the interior or exterior face of the panel .