1. Technical Field
The present invention generally relates to a construction structure, more specifically, relates to a technology and a method of a modular construction structure, which can be applied in fields of architecture, furniture, and toy; meanwhile, the scope of the invention is not limited to the above fields, it is obvious to those skilled in the art that the invention can also be applied in other fields.
2. Description of Related Art
At present, most of modular systems are applied in the field of toy. The modular systems used in the toys are simply assembled and the structures of the objects assembled by the modular systems are unstable, resulting in the easy collapse thereof when being shaken. Additionally, the modular systems are not securely lockable and are not expandable. Nowadays, a few modular systems are designed to securely lockable, however, limited to the structures of these modular systems, the object assembled by the modular system has a single shape and is unstable, preventing the modular systems to be applied in other fields, such as the fields of architecture and furniture.
In the main technology of constructing a building, frame structures composed of steel reinforced concrete and bricks as well as walls constructed by concrete are used for dividing the space of the building. However, using the steel reinforced concrete, bricks, and walls to construct the building consumes a lot of resources and requires for heavy-duty machinery. Also, after the building is pulled down, a lot of construction waste will be produced. Furthermore, since the shape and the space of the building are constructed according to designed drawings, it is very difficult to alter the constructed building. Besides, the kind of building does not have movability and expandability.
Except the buildings built by steel reinforced concrete structure, most of the present modular buildings are like stacked containers. By designing a kind of connecting member or some locking portion, one of the containers is located above another container. However, this only divides and stacks the building simply, making the building look like a number of blocks stacked together from outside. Large mechanical machines are required in the constructing process of the building, and the shapes of the blocks of the building and the space of the building cannot be changed, which prevents the building from having expandability. At the same time, this kind of building is constructed by stacking a number of other units of same type, which greatly affects the movability of the building. Additionally, this kind of building cannot be disassembled into part, thus, the raw material of the building cannot be in common use with other buildings.
Another type of modular building uses steel bars and panels which can be assembled together and disassembled from each other to form the frames and the walls of the building. The steel bars and panels are connected to each other via various connecting members to form a house composed of frames, walls, and floors, for example, the complete-board house which is decoration-free and assembled rapidly described in the Chinese patent application CN200410028042.2, which is published on Jan. 18, 2006. This kind of modular building allows the space of the building to be expanded and the material to be recycled. Houses can be assembled rapidly by industrializedly producing the components in large number to satisfy housing demand from people. However, limited to the structures of these components, the shape and the space of the building assembled by these components are similar to the structure of a honeycomb, lacking of humanization and selection diversity in design. Also, due to limitations on universalnesses of these components, these components can be only used for constructing buildings of one or several particular shapes and of special functions.
It is known that light steel, especially cold-formed thin-walled light steel structure systems, are commonly used for constructing modular houses in European countries and America. The cold-formed thin-walled light steel structure system technology is mature in Australia and the principle thereof is similar to that of the technology of using modular panels to assemble the complete-board house which is decoration-free and is assembled rapidly as mentioned above, that is, using steel bars and panels which can be assembled together and disassembled from each other to form the frames and the walls of the building, and then connecting the steel bars and panels through connecting members to form the house composed of frames, walls, and floor. However, the main characteristic of using light steel to construct the building is that all the structural components of the building are pre-designed in the computer. These structural components required for forming the building such as frames of walls, floor beams, and roof trusses then are directly produced by the technology of CAD, by the control of light steel constructing and designing software, and by precise processing from intellectual processing apparatus. The manufacturing processes of these structural components are carried out by professional apparatus controlled by computer software. The other floor systems are constructed by using waterproof glass tile, waterproof coiled material, heat preservation material cotton, stringers, suspended fireproof gypsum board. The whole process is the similar to the industrialized production of automobile elements. The advantages of the modular building include small precision error of the structural components within half-millimeter which cannot be reached when being manufactured manually and mature producing processes of these structural components. The shortcomings of the modular building lie in: the manufacturing cost is high; the standard and programmed inner arrangement and supporting facility designs prevent people from handing the building freely because the building has been divided by the structure of the steel; additionally, galvanized steel is used in this kind of building for improving the corrosion resistance of the steel, which allows the main steel structure of the building to have the greatest corrosion resistance and to endure for 50 years; furthermore, a lot of new materials are required in construction of this kind of building in which the light steel is cooperated with heat preservation material and heat insulation material; besides, light new material is generally used for meeting the requirement of convenient construction. It is noted that the constructing process of this kind of building is carried out according to pre-designed constructing images, in this way, the so called “modular building” means assembling the pre-manufactured material like assembling building blocks, but not really means constructing the building using modular components. The structural component does not have universalness and lack of the expandability thereof in space and in function. Since the building is completely constructed according to pre-designed drawings, therefore, the construction of the building does not have the flexibility of the building blocks.
The object of the present invention is to provide a modular construction system, structural principle of components and assembling method of the modular construction system. Specifically, the object of the invention is using a series of exchangeable components which can be assembled together in different ways to form various kinds of objects which have different functions and are composed of planes and standing column shaped structures.
A modular construction system, and components and assembling method thereof, including a series of components, the components includes “” shaped components, “” shaped components, “” shaped component, “” shaped pin components, and a number of kinds of fish-bone shaped components; the fish-bone shaped components are formed according to the shapes of Chinese character “”, Chinese character “”, Chinese character “”, Chinese character “”, Chinese character “”; except the “” shaped pin components, the series of components are formed by combining a number of identical cubes which are arranged according to a thickness of one cube and according to the shapes of the above Chinese characters; convexes and concaves formed in each component is cube shaped, therefore, the series of components are capable of being locked to each other to allow the convexes to respectively engage with the concaves, thereby forming a number of stable objects composed of planes and standing column shaped structures; the series of components can be considered as universal elements of disassembled planes and standing columns; different kinds of components are assembled through the engagements between the convexes and concaves thereof; a hole is defined in each cube of the series of components to allow the “” shaped pin component to pass therethrough and to be locked therein; by integrating locking functions of “” shaped pin components and the “” shaped components into the components themselves, the stable planes and standing column structures can be formed when locking the components together; the material of the component is of high tensile strength.
The essence of the present invention is locking a series of regularly shaped modular components to each other to assemble objects of different functions which are composed of planes and standing column shaped structures. The series of components have the same geometric structure principles, and each component is composed of a number of cubes arranged according to a thickness of one cube and the shapes of the above Chinese characters, wherein:
one kind of the fish-bone shaped components is composed of nineteen identical cubes arranged together according to the thickness of one cube in the order that the shape of the Chinese character “” is located above and the shape of Chinese character “” is located below (as component 1 shown in
one kind of the fish-bone shaped components is composed of fifteen identical cubes arranged according to the thickness of one cube in the order that the shape of the Chinese character “” is located above and the shape of the Chinese character “” is located below (as component 2 shown in
one kind of the fish-bone shaped components is composed of sixteen identical cubes arranged according to the thickness of one cube in the order that the shapes of the Chinese characters “” are respectively located above and below (as component 3 shown in
one kind of the fish-bone shaped components is composed of eighteen identical cubes arranged according to the thickness of one cube in the order that the shape of the Chinese character “” is located above and the shape of the Chinese character “” is located below (as component 4 shown in
one kind of the fish-bone shaped components is composed of sixteen identical cubes arranged according to the thickness of one cube in the order that the shape of the Chinese character “” is located above and the shape of the Chinese character “” is located below (as component 5 shown in
one kind of the “” shaped component is composed of sixteen identical cubes arranged according to the thickness of one cube and according to the shape of the Chinese character “” (as component 6 shown
one kind of the “” shaped component is composed of five identical cubes arranged according to the thickness of one cube and according to the shape of the Chinese character “” (as component 7 shown
one kind of the “” shaped component is composed of nine identical cubes arranged according to the thickness of one cube and according to the shape of the Chinese character “” (as component 8 shown in
one kind of the fish-bone shaped components is composed of fifteen identical cubes arranged according to the thickness of one cube in the order that the shapes of the Chinese characters “” are respectively located above, in the middle, and below (as component 9 shown in
one kind of the fish-bone shaped components is composed of twenty-one identical cubes arranged according to the thickness of one cube in the order that the shapes of the Chinese characters “” are respectively located above, in the middle, and located below (as component 10 shown in
the “” shaped component is composed of seventeen identical cubes arranged according to the thickness of one cube and according to the shape of the Chinese character “” (as component 11 shown in
the “” shaped component is composed of seven identical cubes arranged according to the thickness of one cube and according to the shape of the Chinese character “” (as component 12 shown in
one kind of the fish-bone shaped components is composed of seventeen cubes arranged according to the thickness of one cube in the order that the shape of the Chinese character “” is located above and the shape of the Chinese character “” is located below (as component 13 shown in
one kind of the fish-hone shaped components is composed of fifteen identical cubes arranged according to the thickness of one cube in the order that the shape of the Chinese character “” is located above and the shape of the Chinese character “” is located below (as component 14 shown in
one kind of the “” shaped component is composed of eight identical cubes arranged according to the thickness of one cube and according to the shape of the Chinese character “” (as component 15 shown
one kind of the fish-hone shaped components is composed of fourteen identical cubes arranged according to the thickness of one cube in the order that the shapes of the Chinese characters “” are respectively located above and below (as component 16 shown in
one kind of the fish-hone shaped components is composed of fourteen identical cubes arranged according to the thickness of one cube in the order that the shapes of the Chinese characters “” are respectively located above and below (as component 16 shown in
one kind of the fish-bone shaped component is composed of twelve identical cubes arranged according to the thickness of one cube in the order that the shape of the Chinese characters “” are respectively locating above, in the middle, and below (as component 18 shown in
the “” shaped component is composed of eleven cubes arranged according to a thickness of one cube and according to the shape of the Chinese character “” (as component 3 shown
one kind of the fish-bone shaped components is composed of thirty-three identical cubes arranged according to the thickness of one cube in the order that the shapes of the Chinese characters “” are respectively located above, in the middle, and located below (as component 5 shown in
one kind of the fish-bone shaped components is composed of twenty-three identical cubes arranged according to the thickness of one cube in the order that the shape of the Chinese character “” is located above and the shape of the Chinese character “” is located below (as component 6 shown in
one kind of the components is composed of seventeen identical cubes arranged according to the thickness of one cube and according to the shape of the Chinese character “” with one cube protruding from one lateral side thereof (as component 8 shown in
one kind of the components is composed of twelve identical cubes arranged according to the thickness of one cube and according to the shape of the Chinese character “” with one cube protruding from one lateral side thereof (as component 8 shown in
one kind of the fish-bone shaped components is composed of ten identical cubes arranged according to the thickness of one cube in the order that the shapes of the Chinese characters “” are respectively located above and below (as component 8 shown in
the “” shaped pin components include long pins and short pins, the short pins (as component 8 shown in
The principle of the present invention is that: since convexes and the concaves formed in each component are cube shaped, therefore, the series of components are capable of being locked to each other by using different locking and assembling methods to allow the convexes to respectively engage with the concaves; according to one main locking and assembling method of the standing column, three pairs of above fish-bone shaped components are used, wherein two pairs of the components each of which has identical front and rear sides are locked to the other pair of the components each of which has identical left and right sides from two ends to form a standing column having a cross section composed of 3*3 cubes, the “” shaped component is used for surrounding and locking the standing column, and the “” shaped component is inserted into the holes defined in the locked components of the standing column to support and prevent the “” shaped component from sliding downwards, thereby finishing the locking and assembling of the components of the standing column; an extending portion of the standing column is assembled according to the same assembling method; and according to the principle, various standing columns of different shapes can be assembled by using different fish-bone shaped components.
According to the same principle, one main locking and assembling method of the plane is using two pairs of the above fish-bone shaped components, wherein one pair of the components each of which has identical front and rear sides is locked to the other pair of the components each of which has identical left and right sides to form a standing column having a cross section composed of 3*3 cubes, the “” shaped component is used for surrounding and locking the standing column, the standing column then is placed horizontally and considered to be an assembly of a cross beam; an extending portion of the cross beam is assembled according to the same assembling method, the “” shaped components is locked to an upper side of the cross beam, thereby finishing the manufacture of the single cross beam; a number of cross beams are assembled according to the same assembling method, and the cross beams are placed in parallel to form a suspended plane structure; according to the principle, when constructing a building, floors and stairs of the building can be assembled according to the assembling method.
According to the same principle, one main locking and assembling method of a wall is locking a pair of components each of which has identical front and rear sides to another pair of components each of which has identical upper and lower sides to form a standing column having a cross section composed of 3*3 cubes; the standing column is then placed horizontally and extended according to the same assembling method; after every three pairs of the components are locked together, concave spaces in shapes of the Chinese character “” or “” are defined in the upper/lower side or the front/rear side of the three pairs of locked components; three of the standing columns assembled according to the same method are placed horizontally as a top standing column, a middle standing column, and a lower standing column parallel to each other; a pair of fish-hone shaped components each of which has identical front and rear sides is locked to the concave spaces defined in the top standing column and the middle standing column placed in parallel; another pair of fish-bone components each of which has identical front and rear sides is locked to the concave spaces defined in the middle standing column and the lower standing column placed in parallel, thereby locking the top standing column, the middle standing column, and the lower standing column together; an extending portion of the wall can be assembled according to the same principle and the assembling method.
According to the same principle, one main locking and assembling method of the standing column is using two pairs of fish-bone components, wherein one pair of the fish-bone shaped components each of which has identical front and rear sides is locked to the other pair of the fish-bone shaped components to form the sanding column having a cross section composed of 3*3 cubes; the “” shaped pin component is inserted into the holes defined in the locked components to lock the two pairs of fish-bone shaped components; an extending portion of the standing column is assembled by the same assembling method; according to the principle, various standing columns of different shapes are assembled by using different fish-bone shaped components.
According to the same principle, one main locking and assembling method of the standing column is using two pairs of fish-bone shaped components with holes, wherein the cubes located in each corner of one pair of the fish-bone shaped components each of which has identical upper and lower sides define enclosed holes perpendicular to the plane of the components, the cubes located in main part of the corresponding pair of fish-hone shaped components define through holes perpendicular to the planes of the corresponding components and parallel to the main part of the corresponding components; the cubes of the pair of fish-bone shaped components each of which has identical left and right sides, except the cubes located in the main part thereof, define through holes perpendicular to the planes of the corresponding components and parallel to the main part of the corresponding components; a “” shaped short pin component is inserted into the holes defined in the main part of the pair of components each of which has identical left and right sides, thus, the short pin component is enclosed inside the components when the pair of components each of which has identical upper and lower sides is locked to the pair of components each of which has identical left and right sides; a “” shaped long pin component is inserted into the holes defined in the pair of components each of which has identical left and right sides; through the assembling sequence, the short pin component can prevent the pair of components each of which has identical left and right sides from moving forth and back inside the components, and the long pin component can prevent the pair of components each of which has identical upper and lower sides from moving upwards and downwards; an extending portion of the standing column is assembled according to the same assembling method; concave spaces in shapes of Chinese character “” or “” are defined in the standing column when locking the extending portion of the standing column; a number of the standing columns are assembled according to the same method, the standing columns are placed in parallel to each other and adjacent to each other, a fish-bone shaped component containing the shape of the Chinese character “” or “” shaped is locked to the concave spaces to lock adjacent standing columns together; in the above kinds of fish-bone shaped component, the cubes of the fish-bone shaped component containing the shape of the Chinese character “”, except the cubes located in the main part of the component, define through holes parallel to the plane and the main part of the corresponding component; a “” shaped long pin component is inserted into the adjacent and associating holes defined in the pair of components each of which has identical left and right sides to prevent associating components from moving downwards; and an extending portion of the plane can be assembled according to the same assembling method.
In specific working process of the present invention, a number of objects having same structures which are composed of planes and standing column shaped structures can be manufactured by assembling the modular components. The present invention can be applied in the fields of housing, public building and facility, furniture, and toy. Since the components of the present invention are connected together via locking structures formed thereon, thus, the components needs to be made of material of high tensile strength which can be selected from the group consisting of metal, wooden, synthetic wooden, and plastic.
Compared to the present technology from the aspect of simple assembly, when constructing buildings including houses, the series of building components of the present invention can be assembled together by using the characteristics themselves without using reinforced steel, concrete or other connecting members. Due to the simplification of the material forming the building, a number of constructing processes can be saved compared to the present technology, for example, the processes of soldering reinforced steel, pouring concrete, and drying concrete. Similarly, in the application of the present invention in the field of furniture, there is no requirement for any connecting members made of icon such as screws and nuts and no requirement for other material such as glue.
Compared to the present technology from the aspects of environmental protection and resource recycling, on one hand, when applying the present invention in the field of building, the components of the present invention can be locked together by the their own structures to form stable structures, therefore, walls, columns, beams, and frames can be built without using intermediate material such as reinforced steel, concrete, and sand and stone, which greatly reduces the reliance on of the building on the reinforced steel, concrete, and sand and stone; on the other hand, since the series of components can be assembled in different was to form different shapes, the flexible structures gives life to the components; as the assembly of different genes can form organs and organizations having different functions, several identical kinds of components can be arranged in different ways to form constructions, which can be houses (as shown in
Compared to the present technology from the aspect of universalness, in the application of the present invention in the field of architecture, the components of the present invention work as ordinary bricks and can be assembled to form buildings of different shapes without using intermediate connecting material, while the ordinary bricks are required to be used with reinforced steel and concrete to construct the buildings. The components of the present invention can be considered universal elements of these buildings which can be assembled in different ways to form objects composed of planes and columns, such as houses, pedestrian bridges, streetlights, walls, bus stations, and so on. When being applied in the field of furniture, the components can be used in different ways by taking advantage of their universalnesses, thereby allowing people to manufacture suitable furniture such as chairs, tables, bookcases, shoeboxes, and so on according to specific requirements.
Compared to the present technology from the aspect of spatial expandability, in the application of the present invention in the field of architecture, buildings constructed by the components of the present invention have good expandability. For example, to a house, people can transform the space of the house; to a pedestrian bridge, people can widen and lengthen the bridge or adding a canopy to the bridge easily. When being applied in the field of furniture, furniture formed by assembling the components of the present invention also has good expandability. For example, to a chair, people can change the size, the height and the structure of the chair according to requirements without using products manufactured according to industrialized standards in the past.
Compared to the present technology from the aspects of manufacturing and maintaining costs, in the application of the present invention in the field of architecture, the producing cost and time are greatly saved and the constructing mode of the buildings are changed, allowing the buildings to be constructed without reinforced steel, concrete, and sands to reduce cost of raw material. During the constructions of the buildings, a number of unnecessary processes can be omitted to breakthrough restrictions in time and space, heavy-duty machinery can also be omitted, and the construction can be carried out all day to assemble the components without making much noise, which breakthroughs restrictions on constructing time; meanwhile, assemblies of large components can be finished in factory departments and then transported to the constructing site to be further assembled, which breakthroughs restrictions on space. Additionally, the building can be easily maintained by changing damaged components. By the reduction in raw material, reduction in constructing processes, reductions in constructing facilities, easy maintenance, and open space and time, people can assemble suitable houses according to requirements by industrially producing the components of the present invention in large number.
Compared to the present technology from the aspect of anti-seismic performance, in the application of the present invention in the field of architecture, when building houses, the components of the present invention are locked together and are connected to each other end-to-end. In this way, the building can be considered as a knitted entirety, and the building can be prevented from being cracked due to the damage of some component and the stabilities of the other components can be prevented from being influenced by the damaged component. Also, stress of the walls and columns of the constructed building are evenly distributed to resolve strong shakes. Thus, the houses built according to the present invention can protect lives and safeties of property in earthquake.
Many aspects of the embodiments can be better understood with reference to the following drawings. The components in the drawings are not necessarily dawns to scale, the emphasis instead being placed upon clearly illustrating the principles of the embodiments. Moreover, in the drawings, like reference numerals designate corresponding parts throughout the several views.
The disclosure is illustrated by way of example and not by way of limitation in the figures of the accompanying drawings in which like references indicate similar elements. It should be noted that references to “an” or “one” embodiment is this disclosure are not necessarily to the same embodiment, and such references mean at least one.
In specific applications of the present invention, since the components with holes and the components without holes respectively have advantages and shortcomings, suitable components can be selected or the components with holes or without holes can be mixed and matched according to practical requirements. When manufacturing objects via components with holes, fish-bone shaped components can be simplified to more simple shapes in situations where “” shaped components are not required, allowing planes and standing columns assembled by the components to have smoother lines and have outlines more approachable to that of practical objects in real life. However, since the process of assembling the components to form graphic objects is an one-way process, in the assembled planes, one component is locked to another component, like zipping up a zipper. When disassembling one part from the object, all the components in the zipper must be disassembled, reducing the function of simple assembly and simple disassembly of this kind of plane structure. Giving the advantages and shortcomings and the difficulty of assembly and disassembly of this kind of plane structure to overall consideration, it is desirable to use this kind of plane structure in field of furniture. In order to express the principle of the modular construction system sufficiently, in the embodiment, the components without holes are described as the main component, and the components are made of material of high tensile strength such as metal, wooden or synthetic wooden, and plastic. Since plastic not only has good chemical stability, corrosion resistance, electrical insulation, heat insulation, shock absorption capability, noise reduction effect, and good elasticity, but also can be easily pasted to other material such as metal, glass, and wooden, and can be manufactured easily, therefore, plastic is used as the material of the component in the embodiment. The component in the embodiment is made of plastic, with a bottom side of thereof being removed and the main body thereof being sallow and configured with reinforcing arms, which guarantees the light weight of the component and the easy assembly of the components. The specific assembling method in each embodiment can be referred to numerals shown in each drawing which is labeled along a line and used for representing a corresponding component shown in the drawing.
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Even though information and the advantages of the present embodiments have been set forth in the foregoing description, together with details of the mechanisms and functions of the present embodiments, the disclosure is illustrative only; and that changes may be made in detail, especially in matters of shape, size, and arrangement of parts within the principles of the present embodiments to the full extend indicated by the broad general meaning of the terms in which the appended claims are expressed.
Number | Date | Country | Kind |
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201010281301.8 | Sep 2010 | CN | national |
PCT/CN2010/001441 | Sep 2010 | CN | national |
Filing Document | Filing Date | Country | Kind | 371c Date |
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PCT/CN10/02031 | 9/19/2010 | WO | 00 | 9/5/2013 |