AU705625B2 - Transportable building system - Google Patents

Description

TRANSPORTABLE BUILDING SYSTEM This invention relates to transportable building systems, enabling a building to be constructed at one location, loaded onto a vehicle and transported as an assembled building to a remote site where the building is to be unloaded for use.

The construction of prefabricated transportable buildings having walls and a roof made of "sandwich panel", a laminate comprising outer layers of metal sheet such as aluminium sheet and a core of a foamed plastics material, is already known. In the construction of such transportable buildings, the floor is made of steel beams such as C-shape sections forming the perimeter of the floor and tubular "RHS" sections form purlins or joists which can be welded to the sections forming the perimeter. The steel base framework for the floor is galvanised after assembly so as to make the construction resistant to corrosion. Afterwards, compressed cement sheet is fixed to the purlins or joists to form the floor. This method of constructing the floor of a prefabricated transportable building is expensive because of the materials used, the labour involved in fabrication, and also the need for galvanising. Such transportable buildings require substantial :15 preparation at the site of use, including anchoring of the building to the ground at the installation site because of the relatively light weight of the building.

"It is an object of the present invention to provide a system enabling a prefabricated transportable building to be more cheaply and/or simply constructed and readily lifted for o transport or positioning by a particular lifting structure.

According to the present invention there is provided a transportable building system comprising a building and a lifting structure by means of which the building is lifted, the building including a floor formed of a concrete slab, uprights such as walls fixed to the floor and extending upwardly therefrom, and a top such as a roof and/or ceiling fixed to the uprights, the floor including a plurality of lifting inserts which have been cast in situ in the concrete slab constituting the floor; the lifting structure comprising a plurality of lifting attachments, each lifting attachment being associated with a respective one of the inserts so that lifting forces applied to the lifting attachments are transferred through the inserts to the slab floor, the lifting structure further including a plurality of lifters, each lifter being attached to a respective one of the lifting attachments, the lifters extending upwardly to tops thereof located at or above the tops of the uprights, whereby lifting forces applied from above the building to the tops of the lifters are transferred downwardly through the lifters to the respective lifting attachments so that the building is lifted from above with the lifting forces being transferred and applied to the slab floor.

In a first possible embodiment each lifting insert comprises a lifting sleeve which was located in the slab when cast, the sleeve having an opening to outside of the slab, each lifting attachment comprising a selectively extendable and retractable lifting member which is received within the respective lifting sleeve, the lifting member when retracted within the sleeve being inoperative and being selectively extendable into a position in which it projects outwardly from the sleeve, the projecting portion of the lifting member having the respective lifter attached thereto. Preferably each lifting sleeve is generally horizontally located and opens outwardly at a side of the concrete slab floor. In the case of a rectangular slab, four lifting inserts may be provided, each one being located a short distance from a respective corner of the slab along the S long side of the rectangular slab. However, if desired, the lifting sleeves may be located so that they open to the upper surface of the slab and each respective lifting attachment may be slidable vertically so as to be extended from its retracted position.

Preferably each lifting member has an enlarged head limiting the extent to which the lifting member can be retracted into the lifting sleeve. The head also serves to prevent a lifting hook or the like coupled to the rod from readily slipping off the outer end of the rod. Each lifting member and its respective associated lifting sleeve preferably provide co-operating formations which prevent complete withdrawal of the lifting member from the sleeve.

In an alternative second possible embodiment each lifting insert comprises a lifting plate which was located at the lowermost surface of the concrete slab when it was cast. At least around the perimeter of the concrete slab there may be provided deeper thicknesses of concrete thereby forming a concrete beam around the perimeter of the slab. Reinforcing material may be incorporated in the slab and in the beam formed by the greater thickness of concrete around the perimeter of the floor. The lifting plates are preferably located at the bottom surfaces of the beams around the perimeter.

S "Each lifting plate may be provided with a threaded bore, each lifting attachment comprising a threaded lower end of the respective lifter, the threaded lower end of the lifter having a thread complementary to the threaded bore in the lifting plate whereby the lifter is attached through its threaded lower end to the respective threaded bore in the lifting plate to transfer lifting forces from the lifter through the lifting plate to the concrete slab floor. The lifting plates are preferably substantially horizontal and are located at a bottom surface of the slab floor, the threaded bores having generally vertical axes, the slab floor including a plurality of passages extending through the thickness of the concrete slab and aligning with the respective threaded bores in the lifting plates whereby the threaded lower ends of the lifters pass through the passages to connect to the lifting plates. The passages may be provided by locating tubes, plugs or the like extending directly up from the threaded bores in the lifting plates and around which the concrete is poured.

The tubes can remain in place or the plugs can be removed once the concrete of the slab has set thereby providing the passages through the slab leading to the threaded bores in the lifting plates.

4 The uprights of the building may be walls of any convenient construction. For example, the walls may be made of "sandwich panels" having foam plastic (such as polystyrene) cores and sheet metal plates provided on the inner and outer surfaces.

In the first embodiment where the lifting inserts include selectively extendable lifting attachments, each lifter may comprise an elongated lifter which extends upwardly outside of the uprights of the building and slightly outside the perimeter of the concrete slab floor. The lifters may be comprised by lifter rods, chains, cables or other elongated members which extend upwardly outside of the walls.

The uprights of the building may comprise walls having inner and outer faces, the lifters being elongated and extending upwardly through the walls between the inner and outer faces thereof and terminating above the tops of the walls where lifting forces are applied. The preferred lifter rods may extend upwardly through the centre of the thickness of sandwich panel walls, e.g. by pushing of each lifter rods downwardly through the relatively soft foam plastic core.

In the case of a brick or concrete block wall, lifter rods may pass through vertically aligned holes 15 provided in the courses of bricks or blocks. In this embodiment the lifter rods may be permanently grouted in the walls to contribute vertical reinforcing for the walls.

"-.The lifters in the second embodiment may be comprised by lifter rods which in use extend upwardly from the lifting inserts in the concrete slab, the lifter rods being located and constructed to enable the upper ends thereof to be located so as to have lifting forces applied thereto. In the second preferred embodiment, the lifter rods may have their lower ends threaded so that they can be engaged with the threaded bores in the lifting plates to enable lifting forces applied to the lifter rods to be transmitted to the lifting plates and hence to the concrete slab and building as a whole.

At the upper end of each lifter there may be provided a lifting coupling for connection to a crane. For example, the upper ends of the lifter rods may be threaded to enable mounting thereto of couplings including lifting rings or eyes to which lifting hooks can be releaseably coupled to apply lifting forces to the lifters.

The lifting structure preferably further includes a lifting frame having a substantially rigid construction and which is located above the top of the building, the lifting frame providing a plurality of lifting points, each lifting point being located generally vertically above each respective lifter and to which each respective lifter is attached whereby a lifting force is applied to the lifting frame which distributes the lifting forces through the lifting points to the lifters and then to the lifting attachments and to the concrete slab floor. The lifting frame is preferably a rectangular frame of approximately the same or slightly larger dimensions than the concrete slab floor, the frame being located above the top of the building and being generally horizontal so that the lifters are all of substantially equal length in extending from the lifting attachments to the lifting points provided by the frame. The frame may include lifting lines, such as chains or cables, S extending inwardly and upwardly from distributed points around the frame to a single lifting point where a crane hook can be attached.

Possible and preferred features of the present invention will now be described with particular reference to the accompanying drawings. However it is to be understood that the features illustrated in and described with reference to the drawings are not to be construed as limiting on the scope of the invention. In the drawings: Fig. 1 shows a schematic vertical sectional view through a lower corner of a prefabricated transportable building according to a first embodiment of the present invention, Fig. 2 shows a similar view of a second embodiment, including a lifting coupling, and 6 Fig. 3 shows schematically a transportable building system according to the invention.

In Fig. 1 the transportable building 10 comprises a floor 1 1 in the form of a concrete slab 12. The slab 12 can be cast in a mould or in formwork and may have for example a thickness in the central region of about 100mm. The cavity 13 on the underside of the central region of the slab 12 can be formed by a foam plastics block located in the mould or formwork. Reinforcing bars or mesh 14 can be incorporated in the slab 12 if desired. Around the perimeter of the floor 11 there are thicker beams 15 formed by a greater thickness, e.g. 160mm, of concrete so as to form a reinforced perimeter beam around the floor 11.

In Fig. 1, there are provided lifting inserts 16 embedded in the concrete slab 12. Each insert 16 comprises a sleeve 17 which can be located in situ when the concrete slab is being poured. Within the sleeve 17 is a lifting attachment 18 in the form of a strong bar having an oool enlarged head 19. The attachment bar 18 is selectively movable firom its retracted position shown in solid line to an extended or projecting position shown in broken line to which a lifter 35 can be selectively releasably attached as further described below. To prevent the bar being completely withdrawn from the sleeve 17, the open end of the sleeve 17 has an internal restricted mouth 28 and the bar 18 has a circumferential stopper 29 which contacts the restriction at the mouth to limit the extent of projection of the bar 18 to about half its length as shown in broken line.

Embedded in the concrete slab 12 in Fig. 2 are lifting inserts 16 in the form of plates The plates 20 may be for example about 100mm wide and 200mm in length. The plates initially rest on the floor of the mould or formwork so that when the concrete slab 12 is poured, the plates form part of the bottom surface of the beams 15. The plates 20 have threaded bores 21 which receive lifting attachments 18 as described below. Extending through the height of the slab 12 and registering with the bores 21 are passages 22 formed for example by tubes or plugs which 7 are located in position during pouring of the concrete slab 12. If plugs are used, they would be removed once the slab has set.

Extending upwardly from the floor II are walls 25. The walls 25 may be formed of generally conventional sandwich panels having foamed plastic materials cores 26 and metal facing sheets 27. The walls 25 may be anchored to the floor 11 in any convenient manner. The building also includes a roof 30, if desired made of sandwich panel and fixed in any desired manner to the top edges of the walls In Fig. 1, there is shown a lifter 35 which may comprise a chain, cable or the like, or a bar or rod which is coupled at its lower end to the projecting lifting attachment 18. The enlarged head 19 can help to prevent accidental dislodgement of the lower end of the lifter 35 from the S lifting attachment 18, particularly when lifting tension commences to be applied through the lifter 35 to the lifting attachment 18 and hence to the slab 12. As shown in broken line in Fig. 3, when using projecting lifting attachments 18 around the sides of the concrete slab floor, the lifters extend upwardly outside of the walls 25 and beyond the roof The building in Fig. 2 also includes lifters 35 shown in the form of lifting rods 36 which extend upwardly from the floor 11. Each lifter rod is attached at its lower end to a respective one S of the lifting plates 20. The lower end of the lifter rod 36 is threaded to constitute a lifting attachment 18 which is connected to the complementary threaded bore 21 provided in the °oC respective plate 20. The lifter rods 36 extend upwardly through the centres of the walls 25 and project through the roof 30. The building can be lifted as a unit by lifting forces applied to the top ends 38 of the lifter rods 36. The top end 38 of the lifter rod 36 is threaded at 39 to enable the releasable attachment of a lifting coupling 40. The coupling 40 is shown as having a lifting eye or loop 41 which can be coupled to a lifting hook 42 as shown in Fig. 3. Also as shown in 8 Fig. 3, the building and lifting system may have four (or if desired more) lifters located in the vicinity of the respective four corners of the building in plan view so that lifting forces can be applied through a lifting frame 43 which distributes the lifting forces from the main lifting cable 44, e.g. of a crane (not shown).

The lifting frame 43 is of rigid construction and has lifting points 45 where lifting forces are transferred from the frame 43 to the lifters 35. The lifters 35 may be connected directly to the lifting points 45 of the frame 43 as shown in broken line in the case of the lifter 35 extending vertically outside of the walls 25 and being connected to the projecting lifting attachment 18.

Alternatively, the lifting forces can be transferred from the lifting points 45 through intermediate lifters 46 extending down from the lifting points 45 and being coupled by hooks 42 to the top ends 38 of the lifter rods 36.

The concrete slab floor 11 can be readily manufactured and the building as a whole can be S prefabricated for construction at one location and for ready transportation to another site for use.

The building as a whole is lifted by forces applied to the concrete slab floor without excessive ::15 localised forces leading to a risk of structural damage. Although the floor can be relatively massive compared to the galvanised steel framework described above, the building as a whole is nevertheless of a manageable total mass to enable ready transportation and installation at a remote site. Even brick or concrete block walled buildings can be lifted using the system of the present invention. The relatively massive concrete slab floor has substantial advantages over the galvanised welded steel frame of the prior art, not only in the simplicity and relative cheapness of the construction, but also in enabling the transportable building embodying the present invention to be installed and used at a remote site with minimal preparation of the site. In particular, the site can be prepared simply by levelling of the required area of ground, and laying of a bed of 9 sand for providing a bedding material for the concrete slab floor. There is no need to anchor the building to the ground as in the case of the substantially lighter transportable building described above. However, if anchoring of the building to the ground is desired, e.g. for installation in cyclone area, steel lugs can be cast into the slab to project a short distance from the perimeter, and the building can be anchored by means of the lugs.

It is to be understood that various alterations, modifications and/or additions may be made to the features of the possible and preferred embodiment(s) of the invention as herein described without departing from the scope of the invention as defined in the claims.

The claims defining the invention are as follows: 1. A transportable building system comprising a building and a lifting structure by means of which the building is lifted, the building including a floor formed of a concrete slab, uprights such as walls fixed to the floor and extending upwardly therefrom, and a top such as a roof and/or ceiling fixed to the uprights, the floor including a plurality of lifting inserts which have been cast in situ in the concrete slab constituting the floor; the lifting structure comprising a plurality of lifting attachments, each lifting attachment being associated with a respective one of the inserts so that lifting forces applied to the lifting attachments are transferred through the inserts to the slab floor, the lifting structure further including a plurality of lifters, each lifter being attached to a respective one of the lifting attachments, the lifters extending upwardly to tops thereof located at or above the tops of the uprights, whereby lifting forces applied from above the building to the tops of the lifters

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are transferred downwardly through the lifters to the respective lifting attachments so that the S: building is lifted from above with the lifting forces being transferred and applied to the slab floor.

2. A system as claimed in Claim 1 wherein each lifting insert comprises a lifting sleeve which was located in the slab when cast, the sleeve having an opening to outside of the slab, each lifting attachment comprising a selectively extendable and retractable lifting member which is received o within the respective lifting sleeve, the lifting member when retracted within the sleeve being inoperative and being selectively extendable into a position in which it projects outwardly from the •coo sleeve, the projecting portion of the lifting member having the respective lifter attached thereto.

3. A system as claimed in Claim 2 wherein each lifting sleeve is generally horizontally located and opens outwardly at a side of the concrete slab floor.

I

Claims (9)

1. 4. A system as claimed in Claim 3 wherein each lifter comprises an elongated lifter which extends upwardly outside of the uprights of the building and slightly outside the perimeter of the concrete slab floor. A system as claimed in Claim 2, 3 or 4 wherein each lifting member has an enlarged head limiting the extent to which the lifting member can be retracted into the lifting sleeve.
2. 6. A system as claimed in Claim 5 wherein each lifting member and its respective associated lifting sleeve provide co-operating formations which prevent complete withdrawal of the lifting member from the sleeve.
3. 7. A system as claimed in Claim 1 wherein each lifting insert comprises a lifting plate which was located at the lowermost surface of the concrete slab when it was cast.
4. 8. A system as claimed in Claim 7 wherein each lifting plate is provided with a threaded bore, oo each lifting attachment comprising a threaded lower end of the respective lifter, the threaded lower o o S end of the lifter having a thread complementary to the threaded bore in the lifting plate whereby the lifter is attached through its threaded lower end to the respective threaded bore in the lifting plate to ':15 transfer lifting forces from the lifter through the lifting plate to the concrete slab floor.
5. 9. A system as claimed in Claim 8 wherein the lifting plates are substantially horizontal and are •.-located at a bottom surface of the slab floor, the threaded bores having generally vertical axes, the slab floor including a plurality of passages extending through the thickness of the concrete slab and Saligning with the respective threaded bores in the lifting plates whereby the threaded lower ends of the lifters pass through the passages to connect to the lifting plates. A system as claimed in any one of Claims 7 to 9 wherein the uprights of the building comprise walls having inner and outer faces, the lifters being elongated and extending upwardly through the walls between the inner and outer faces thereof and terminating above the tops of the walls where lifting forces are applied.
6. 11. A system as claimed in any one of the preceding claims wherein the upper end of each lifter is provided with a lifting coupling enabling lifting forces to be applied to the lifters from a crane connected to the lifting couplings.
7. 12. A system as claimed in any one of the preceding claims wherein the lifting structure further includes a lifting frame having a substantially rigid construction and which is located above the top of the building, the lifting frame providing a plurality of lifting points, each lifting point being located generally vertically above each respective lifter and to which each respective lifter is attached whereby a lifting force is applied to the lifting frame which distributes the lifting forces through the to lifting points to the lifters and then to the lifting attachments and to the concrete slab floor.
8. 13. A system as claimed in Claim 12 wherein the lifting frame is a rectangular frame of approximately the same or slightly larger dimensions than the concrete slab floor, the frame being too located above the top of the building and being generally horizontal so that the lifters are all of substantially equal length in extending from the lifting attachments to the lifting points provided by the frame. too 14. A system as claimed in Claim 12 or 13 wherein the frame includes lifting lines extending inwardly and upwardly from distributed points around the frame to a single lifting point where a crane hook can be attached.
9. 15. A transportable building system substantially as herein before described with particular reference to the accompanying drawings. Dated this 30th day of June 1995 PATENT ATTORNEY SERVICES Attorneys for BARRIER ENGINEERING CONSTRUCTION CO PTY LTD 13 Abstract A transportable building system comprises a building 10 having a floor 11 formed of a concrete slab 12, walls 25 and a roof 30. The floor includes lifting inserts 16 cast in situ in the concrete slab. A lifting structure comprises lifting attachments 18 associated with the inserts so that lifting forces applied to the lifting attachments are transferred through the inserts to the slab floor, the lifting structure further including lifters 35 attached to the lifting attachments and extending upwardly to tops thereof located at or above the tops of the walls so that lifting forces applied from above the building to the tops of the lifters are transferred downwardly through the lifters to the respective lifting attachments so that the building is lifted from above with the lifting forces being transferred and applied to the slab floor. The lifting inserts can be lifting sleeves 17 located in the slab when cast, the lifting attachments 18 comprising selectively extendable and retractable lifting members within the lifting sleeves. Alternatively, each lifting insert 16 may comprise a lifting plate 20 located at the lowermost surface of the concrete slab when cast, each lifting plate having a threaded bore 21, each lifting attachment 18 comprising a threaded lower end of the respective lifter rod 36. A substantially rigid lifting frame 43 is located above the top of the building, the lifting frame providing a plurality of lifting points 45 to which the lifters are attached whereby a lifting force is applied to the lifting to the frame which distributes the lifting forces through the lifting points to the lifters and then to the lifting attachments and to the concrete slab floor. oooo