AU2007100298A5 - A Portable Building - Google Patents

Description

AUSTRALIA

ORIGINAL

COMPLETE SPECIFICATION INNOVATION PATENT o

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t- 1^ 0 0 Invention Title: Name of Applicant: Actual Inventors: Address for service: A Portable Building Xiamen International Trade Co., Ltd Zhenquiu Yang Xiuyuan Yang WRAY ASSOCIATES Level 4, The Quadrant 1 William Street Perth, WA 6000 Attorney code: WR The following statement is a full description of this invention, including the best method of performing it known to me:- -2- A Portable Building Field of the Invention This invention relates to a movable building, and more specifically a building that o00 can be conveniently moved after being partially folded into a container-like C 5 movable standard receptacle.

Background SMovable buildings are widely used in villas, apartment sales offices, provisional offices, apartments, exhibition halls, command posts, schools, stores, dorms, canteens, industrial premises, hospitals, lookout posts, building addition, etc. Its merit is the reassembly can meet the needs of movement from one place to another. The demerits are the trivial process, time and labour consuming, too many parts and easy to lose, impossible to long distance transportation and the parts are damageable in the process of reassembly with the result of low reuse rate.

In Chinese Patent Document: No. 01249948, a light modularized reassembly movable building is disclosed. It is composed of a substrate board, fixed walls, wall slabs, floor slab, roof, snap coupling devices and fastening devices.

According to its designing, all these parties can be standardized and assembled quickly, especially considering that these parties are light and strong and the materials are all internal pressed with multi-cavity. Although the materials of the buildings are very light and easy to dismount and transport, it still has the demerits of trivialness, time and labour consuming, too many parts and easy to lose, impossible to long distance transportation and low reuse rate.

In Chinese Patent Document: No. 02278245, a multifunctional expandable container-like camping trailer coach is disclosed. It is composed of frame, walls, roof and its supporting beam, waterproof and temperature-preserve tarp and sole timber. The said frame is made by cutting the two ends of a container. The walls -3at the two ends are connected to the frame by its four standing columns with hinge joint. The said walls are both foldable. The sole timber is set under the walls. The side wall boards are installed at the end of the front and rear wall boards. When adopting the transfiguration container under the standard of the railway transportation, spare wall boards are arranged between the sole timbers 00 under the front and rear wall boards. The roof supporting beam is built over the

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0 space encircled by the front and rear wall boards and the side wall boards. The roof, locating above the supporting beam, is made of the materials like what is

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used in rolling or folding doors. The roof can be covered by waterproof and heatpreservation canvas. The movable coach can be transported after being folded into a container though, the assembling procedure is trivial and its structure is unstable besides the roof need the heat-preservation canvas for water-proof. The life span of using is limited and the effects of waterproof and wind-proof is poor.

The discussion throughout this specification, of the background and prior art to the invention is intended only to facilitate an understanding of the present invention. It should be appreciated that the discussion is not an acknowledgement or admission that any of the material referred to was part of the common general knowledge in Australia and the world as at the priority date of the application.

Summary of the Invention Throughout the specification, unless the context requires otherwise, the word "comprise" or variations such as "comprises" or "comprising", will be understood to imply the inclusion of a stated integer or group of integers but not the exclusion of any other integer or group of integers.

The invention provides a well-equipped movable building which is convenient in reassembly and transportation, good in water-resistance and wind resistance,.

Accordingly the invention resides in a movable building which comprises: a cuboid cabinet serves as the main body of a building, which comprises at -4- Sleast four columns, a frame work composed of four short transverse poles and four longitudinal poles, a fixed ceiling board on the top and a fixed flooring board at the bottom, and at least one active ceiling board, acting as the roof of the building, connects to one edge on the top surface of the said cabinet with a pin joint. The active ceiling board can be turned downward to the side wall of the cabinet circling the

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Ssaid pin joint axis; at least one active flooring board, acting as the floor of the building, connects to one edge on the bottom of the said cabinet with a pin joint. The flooring board can be turned upward to the side wall of the cabinet circling the said pin joint axis. The pin joint axes are set at both upside and downside on the same side of the cabinet; at least one side wall board, acting as the wall of the building, is vertically seated between the edges of ceiling board and bottom board, and it can be disassembled; at least one illumination equipment with its main part of the circuit embedded in the fixed roof board and the rest part goes into the active ceiling board; at least one water-supply equipment with its main part of the service pipes and downcomer pipes preset in the fixed flooring board; at least two hoisting equipment, for laying out and wrapping up the active ceiling board and flooring board, being set on the columns. And they can be disassembled; the said fixed ceiling board and the active ceiling board constitute the roof of the building which at least comprise outer waterproof layer, inner decoration layer and its steel framework. Gland strip is arranged where the fixed ceiling board meets the active ceiling board.

According to a preferred feature of the invention the outer waterproof layer of said fixed ceiling board is integrally mould by the fibreglass-reinforced plastics Owith its two longitudinal edges enwrap the two longitudinal poles and turn out to be the channelled structure. The outer waterproof layer of the active ceiling board is colour coated steel plate, which stretch out of the steel framework and inner decoration layer, and connect to the fixed ceiling board for the purpose of 5 rainproof.

00 In transportation, the side wall boards will be dismounted and stacked in the

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Ocabinet. The active ceiling board and active flooring board shall be wrapped up and locked onto the side wall of the cabinet. In such a way that the configuration N of whole building is in line with the cabinet and it could act as a container and easy to reassembly.

According top a preferred feature of the invention said hoisting equipment comprises suspender, assembly pulley, steel wire rope and electric hoist. The far end of the suspender has a pulley. The electric hoist is set on the column under the fixing mount and has a steel wire rope rolling over its axis. At the expansion end of the rope, there is a hook. Another fixed pulley is set above the electric hoist. The expansion end of the steel wire rope will bypass the two pulleys and hitch on another hook on the edge of the active ceiling board.

According to a preferred feature of the invention the said fixing mount is an inverse triangle box with its thickness is matchable to the width of column. On its surface board, there is a splicing groove and a pin joint unit. The downside of the said near-fixing end of the suspender has a connecting jut which insert into the foresaid splicing groove. The fixed end of the suspender is locked to the foresaid pin joint unit by a pin.

According to a preferred feature of the invention the said active ceiling board will be inclined when being opened, or by saying when assembling the building. Its out stretching edge is higher than its fixed edge. According to a preferred feature of the invention the surface of the active ceiling board is rippled and the channels follow the inclining direction. According to a preferred feature of the invention the -6- O surface of the fixed ceiling board is also rippled and the fixed edge of the active ceiling board is slightly higher than the surface of the fixed ceiling board.

According to a preferred feature of the invention the said movable building has a kitchen, a washroom and a living room. According to a preferred feature of the 5 invention the necessary equipment of the kitchen and washroom are all set 00 inside of the main body. According to a preferred feature of the invention some of Othe fixed side wallboard could be arranged. According to a preferred feature of the invention the power wires can be go through the coil pipes which lay inside of N the wallboard and ceiling board.

According to a preferred feature of the invention the inner decoration layers of the said active ceiling board and the fixed ceiling board are aluminium alloy slats.

According to a preferred feature of the invention there are also heat preservation board sandwiched between the outer waterproof board and the aluminium alloy slats.

According to a preferred feature of the invention there are shaped aluminium alloy bars installed along the three sides of the active ceiling board. According to a preferred feature of the invention the channel on the aluminium alloy bars face downward and fit to the upper part of the side wall board. When assembling, the side wallboards insert into the slot and locked up.

According to a preferred feature of the invention said fixed flooring board and the active flooring board comprise steel framework, moisture-proof board, wooden board and bamboo flooring which are laid in turn. According to a preferred feature of the invention there are also sealing bars for the flooring, which is set in the gaps between the fixed flooring board and active flooring board.

According to a preferred feature of the invention the size of said cabinet is the same with the standard container.

According to a preferred feature of the invention said active ceiling board and active flooring board are installed along the longitudinal edges on the floor with -7pin joints. A door is arranged on one of the smaller side walls and windows on side wallboard.

According to a preferred feature of the invention a seat for wind-powered generator or a solar generator is set on the top of the cabinet. There is a fixing steel framework beneath the seat, which joins the cabinet steel framework to be 00 an integral one so that the supporting force to the wind-powered generator or a solar generator can be delivered.

According to a preferred feature of the invention an environmental toilet bowl is installed in the said cabinet. Preferably, it could be a water-free toilet bowl.

According to a preferred feature of the invention the procedure of moving the said building includes: 1) Uninstall the side wallboards, which act as the outer walls of the whole building, and put them into the cabinet which is the main-body of the building: 2) Release the active ceiling board and active flooring to the side walls of the cabinet, and the building turn out to be a standard container: 3) Transport the container to somewhere required by vehicles; 4) Lift the ceiling board to some height needed to be a roof and locked; Put down the flooring board to the ground: 6) Install the side wall boards between the ceiling board and flooring board out of the cabinet.

According to a preferred feature of the invention in the moving process indicated above, the method of unfolding the active ceiling board upward includes: 1) There is one suspender installed at the upper part of each of the fixed mount on the standing columns of the same side in the cabinet; 2) Fix two electric hoists on the two standing columns in the cabinet and the extending end of the steel wire rope on the electric hoists shall -8bypass the pulley under the far end of the suspender till to hitch on the Shook on the active ceiling board; initiate the electric hoist to roll up the steel wire rope and lift the active ceiling board up to the side wall of the cabinet.

oO 5 According to a preferred feature of the invention the said equipment is also used Sto turn down the active ceiling board.

_According to a preferred feature of the invention the active flooring board can use pulley and electric hoist going up and down directly.

N All in all, the strongpoint of this invention comparing with prior art are as follows: firstly, it will become a standard container after folding the building. It is suitable for the road transportation and ocean shipping; secondly, the procedure of remove and reassembly is very convenient because it does not have too many accessories to make some other packaging for transportation. In the mean time it is the standard container, all the furniture, doors and windows can be placed in it; thirdly, the building may have large weight for the reason of the building itself will transported as a container. So the supporting framework may be a steel structure or some other intensified structures to ensure its strength; fourthly, a mechanized operation can be achieved when removing and reassembling; fifthly, the design of the steel frame work of the building is ideal and in line with the standard of GB50017-2003 on the Designing of Steel Structure.

Despite of the merits of rein-proof and wind-proof, it can also resist the earthquake with Richter Scale of 7: the sixth, the walls are double aluminum alloy structured and be equipped -9with toughened glass. It is in line with the standard of GB/T15225-94 on Sphysics character classification of the out walls of buildings. It can resist the Typhoon of 1 2 th degree and the heat preservation is good enough to go through the environment of high temperature and chilliness, also it has the merit of radiation protection. There are also lightning rod on the 00oO building, the wires and cable are earthing and the resistance is lower than

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the seventh, the building has complete equipment of water and electricity C services including the environmental toilet bowl. It is suitable for being an office, residence, workshops and so on; the eighth, the building can be equipped with the mini-type wind-powered generator or solar generator for self-feeding electricity.

In this invention, the active ceiling board and the active flooring board could be either arranged at one side of the cabinet or at both sides. It is also possible to build up in a more complicated way, for example the villa type buildings.

The invention will be more fully understood in the light of the following description of several specific embodiments Brief Description of the Drawings: The description is made with reference to the accompanying drawings of which: Fig. 1 is an isometric view of a building according to the embodiment Fig. 2 is an isometric view of a building according to the embodiment at the stage 1 of unfolding; Fig. 3 is an isometric view of a building according to the embodiment at the stage 2 of unfolding; Fig. 4 is an isometric of the framework of a building according to the embodiment; Fig. 5 is an isometric view of the interior of a building according to the embodiment; SFig. 6a is a partial side elevation of the steel framework of the fixed roof board k according to the embodiment; Fig. 6b is an end elevation of the steel framework of the fixed roof board t'q according to the embodiment; 00oO 5 Fig. 7a is a partial side elevation of the steel framework of the active ceiling C board according to the embodiment; Fig. 7b is an end elevation of the steel framework of the active ceiling board Saccording to the embodiment; Fig. 7c is an end elevation view of the connection between fixed roof board and active ceiling board according to the embodiment; Fig. 8 is a side elevation of the disassembled building when packed on to a vehicle.

Detailed Description of Specific Embodiment This embodiment mainly comprises the cabinet 1 acting as the main body, the active ceiling boards 3 which connect to the longitudinal edge on the top surface of the cabinet through pin joint, the active flooring board 2 which connects to the longitudinal edge at the bottom of the cabinet through pin joint, the side wall board 5 arranged between the active ceiling board 3 and active flooring board 2, the underprop 4 fixed beneath the cabinet 1, and the hoisting equipment locker 6 on the top.

The cabinet 1, acting as the main body of the building: As Fig. 1, 2 and 4 showed that the cabinet 1 is a cuboid and includes at least: a steel framework 11 being composed of four columns 111, four short poles 112 and four long poles 113; fixed ceiling board on the top; fixed flooring board 13 at the bottom; each of the four columns 111 has a hoisting equipment locker 6.

In this embodiment, as Fig. 6 and 7 showed that the two longitudinal poles 113 at the top of the cabinet 1 adopt shaped channel-structured steel. The transverse square steel 114 and longitudinal channel steel 115 welded within the area of the -11 top surface constitutes the steel framework. The height of transverse square steel 114 is half of the channel steel. The end of the square steel insert into the shaped channel steel and weld on to it by its lower part. The edges of heat preservation plate 112 also insert into the shaped channel steel and adhered to it at the upper part. The waterproof layer is a glass fibre composite board 121, 00 which is integrally manufactured. The two longitudinal edges enwrapped the two

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Slongitudinal poles 113. There is the inner decoration layer/aluminium alloy slat 119 arranged under the steel framework. The stator 15 for the active flooring board 2 and the bundle connector 14 for connecting the active ceiling board 3 are welded outside of the two longitudinal poles 113.

Active ceiling board 3: as Fig. 2, 3, 4 and 7 showed, the steel framework 31 of the active ceiling board 3 comprises two transverse poles 311, two longitudinal poles 314, 315 and intersecting the transverse strut 313 and longitudinal strut 312. There are several pin-jointing axes 32 are vertically welded at the inner side of longitudinal pole 315 and several stators 33 horizontally welded outside of the longitudinal pole 314. In this embodiment, the transverse pole 311 adopts the channel steel, strut 313 and longitudinal pole 312 adopts square steel. They will be welded to be a steel frame work. Its end will be inserted into the channel of transverse pole 311 and then welded. The edges of the heat preservation plate 35 also insert into the channel steel and adhered to its upper part. The colour coated steel plate 34 of the waterproof layer will be arranged above the heat preservation plate 35. There is also inner decoration layer/aluminium alloy slat 36 installed under the steel framework which stretch out of the steel framework and inner decoration layer 36.

The pin jointing axis 32 is welded at the inner side of the longitudinal pole 315 of the active ceiling board 3, inserted between two neighbouring bundle connectors 16 on the fixed ceiling board and locked by a twist pin 320. In such a way, the active ceiling board 3 can be connected onto the two sides of the cabinet 1.

-12- Active flooring board 2: as Fig. 2, 3 and 4 showed the steel framework 21 of the Sactive flooring board 2 comprises two transverse poles 211, two longitudinal poles 215 and, transverse strut 213, longitudinal strut 212 and skewed strut 214.

The moisture-proof board 23, wooden board and bamboo flooring 22 are fixed 5 onto the steel framework 21 in turn. The stators 24 are welded onto the outside 00 oO of the longitudinal pole 215 on the active flooring board 2. The pin jointing axes are vertically welded to the inner side of the longitudinal pole 215 on the active flooring board 2. Accordingly, the bundle connectors are also welded at C)the outside of two longitudinal poles 113 on the fixed flooring board 13. The bundle connecting axes 25 on the active board 2 go through the two bundle connectors and locked by a twist locker. In such a way that the active flooring board 2 can be pin jointed at each side of the cabinet 1.

Hoisting equipment: It comprises the suspender 7, pulleys 73, 82, steel wire rope 81, electric hoist 8. As Fig. 1, 2, 3 and 4 showed that a fixing mount 6, which cooperates with the suspender, is set at each of the four corners on the top of the cabinet 1. The fixing mount 6 is an inverse triangle cabinet with the thickness is matchable with the width of the column 111. On the fixing mount 6, there is an infixing channel 61 and a pin jointing place 62 for the instalment of the suspender 7. An infixing jut 71 is set at the lower part on the near-fixing end of the suspender 7. The infixing jut 71 can be inserted into the fore-mentioned fixing channel 61. The fixing end 72 is locked to fore-mentioned pin-jointing place 62 by a pin. A quick process for remove and reassembly can be achieved through this mechanism.

There is a pulley 73 installed of the downside on the far end at the suspender 7, and an electric hoist 8 on one side of the column 111 of the cabinet 1. A steel wire rope 81 is circled on the rotation axis. A crown block 82 is set above the electric hoist 8. There is a hook 84 at the extending end of the steel wire rope 81.

The extending end will bypass the fore said two pulleys 82 and 73 till to the -13- O matchable hook 83 on the ceiling board 3. When reassembly, the electric hoist 7 will start to work and the steel wire rope 81 will be rolled up to make the ceiling board 3 turned up to somewhere required. Then the hook on the extending end of the rope 74 at the end of the suspender 7 hitch the hook 83, as showed in Fig.

5 2, that is state of the active ceiling board being lifted up and fastened the rope 00 74. The active ceiling board 3 can be fixed to the desired place. The side wall Oboard 5 can be reassembled by now. After that, the suspender 7 and electric hoist 8 can be removed. The procedure of removing is exactly the opposite to N the assembly. In transportation, the far ends of ceiling board 3 and the active flooring board 2 can be fixed through the stators 33, 15 being set outside of them. The suspender 7 can only be used when removing the building, so they can be put away at other times. The turning procedures of active flooring board 2 and active ceiling board 3 are the same.

As Fig. 1, 2 and 3 showed, the active ceiling board 3 is inclined when unfolding the building. The out far edge is higher than its fixed edge. There are channels 341 arranged along the inclining direction of the colour coated steel plate 34 of the active ceiling board 3. The top surface of the cabinet 1 is inclined and curved downward. The fixing end of the active ceiling board 3 is slightly higher than the surface of the cabinet. The edge 342 of the colour coated steel plate 34 is set above the top surface of the cabinet 1. When it is raining, the rain will flow through the channels 341 to the top surface of the cabinet and drop down from the notches on the surface.

Besides, the building may also have a gas-exhausting system, rain collecting system and so on. The sizes of cabinet 1 are variously in line with the container of different standard.

According to the description of the above-mentioned movable building, the procedure of moving the building includes: -14- 6 At first, the furniture disposed between the active ceiling board 3, active flooring board 2 shall be wrapped up according to certain sequences and put into the cabinet 1. The suspender 7 will be used to lock the active ceiling board 3, and the side wall board 5 will be removed into the cabinet 1. By using the suspender 5 7, the active ceiling board 3 and active flooring board 2 will be turned up to the 00 side wall of the cabinet 1. In such a way, it will become a standard container.

SThen, the suspender 7 may be removed and put into the cabinet 1 through the door 16 at the front side.

In the second, the container can be moved onto a vehicle by a crane, transported to somewhere required and laid to a suitable ground also by a crane.

In the third, one may install and use the suspender 7 to turn up the active ceiling board 3 to a certain height and the active flooring board 2 to the ground; reassemble the side wall board 5 standing between the active ceiling board 3 and the active flooring board 2; the active ceiling board 3 has the channelstructured aluminium alloy 37 along its three edges, the notches of channel face downward and fit in the upper part 51 of side wall board 5; the upper part 51 fit into the channel 37 when reassembling; two adjacent side wall boards 5 shall be connected through stainless steel bolts; remove the suspender 7; install the sealing bar 17 at the place where fixed roof board 12 meets the active ceiling board 3; the sealing bar 18 shall be installed at the place where fixed flooring board 13 meets the active flooring board 2; and dispose the furniture.

The main part of the circuit in lighting equipment goes through the coil pipes 122 and embedded in the fixed ceiling board 12. The rest part goes into the active ceiling board 3. A wind-powered generator seat 123 (See. Fig 3, 4) is set on the fixed ceiling board 12. A fixed steel stand 118 under the seat 123, which can pass the support force to the wind-powered generator or the solar generator, is integrally connected with the steel framework of the cabinet; the fixed steel stand 118 is installed onto the fixed wall 124.

The building has a toilet 131 and a kitchen 132 inside. The toilet 131 has an Senvironmental toilet bowl; the immovable facilities of the kitchen 132 or toilet 131 are installed on the fixed flooring board 13 for the sake of laying out the water/electricity/gas service pipes. It has no need to removing these when 5 transportation.

00 oO A solar generator, as well as the broad band, stereo wires and other facilities can be installed in order to meet the users' needs. A lightning rod can also be installed.

SThe above mentioned embodiment is just one practical case of this invention, however the spirit of this invention will not be limited to it.

Industrial Applicability: The structure of this invention is designed with reason. It is convenient for reassembling and usage. A massive production can be achieved. As a result, it has good industrial applicability.

The present invention is not to be limited in scope by any of the specific embodiment described herein. The embodiment is intended for the purpose of exemplification only. Functionally equivalent products and methods are clearly within the scope of the invention as described herein.