(Photo credit : Circerb)
Off-site construction distinguishes itself from traditional construction by offering shorter project timelines and potentially reduced costs. Furthermore, prefabricating some or all components inside a factory, allows not only to spend less time on the construction site, but also tends to improve the quality of buildings. Elements are built under controlled conditions, sheltered from the vagaries of weather, and where quality control can be performed more easily.
This type of construction would however benefit from a more efficient assembly solution to facilitate and accelerate the installation of the prefabricated elements on site, especially when it comes to large buildings. To address this challenge, Laurence Picard undertook a Ph.D. in mechanical engineering within the Industrialized Construction Initiative at Laval University, in Quebec City, under the supervision of Pierre Blanchet and André Bégin-Drolet. The objective of her project" To develop a self-locking connector to quickly connect prefabricated modules together on the building site, to optimize the benefits of prefabrication, especially for multi-story light-frame modular construction. Today, when such prefabricated modules are erected on site, workers must perform certain manual operations to secure the hardware required to assemble the prefabricated elements. In addition to the time required to perform for this step, it also necessitates leaving certain areas of the modules a...