Lida Group Pushes Prefabrication to New Heights with Multi-Story Building Panel Technology

Construction firm Lida Group continues advancing the boundaries of off-site prefabrication with a new lightweight panel system enabling complete factory-assembly of multi-story apartment buildings prior to swift on-site erection. Previously focused on single-family detached homes using prefabricated wall panels, Lida Group’s latest innovation significantly scales up the scope of what can be produced off-site through prefabrication for the first time.

Through a series of engineering innovations, Lida Group has overcome prior challenges with prefabricating taller structures by developing an advanced composite sandwich panel well-suited to constructing floors, walls and roof decks of mid-rise buildings in a controlled factory setting. Composed of rigid foam insulation bonded between waterproof facings, the new Multi-Story Building Panels (MSBPs) provide structural integrity, excellent insulating properties and seamless moisture protection at an unprecedented scale.

Precise Factory Preassembly

At a newly established Mass Manufacturing Center, Lida Group has installed a complete production line dedicated to outputting MSBPs for multi-story buildings on assembly-line principles. Through coordinated machinery including large-format CNC routers, panel-bonding systems, on-panel wiring/piping robots and logistical automation, entire floors including structure, envelope and MEP systems can be pre-constructed with millimeter precision control.

The production process begins with raw insulation boards and exterior sheathing materials fed onto the line. Computer-controlled cutters and routers shape interlocking floor joist and wall cavities into the rigid insulation cores at an incremental pace of one full floor every 2-3 minutes. Robotic arms simultaneously embed reinforcements, sealant tapes and embed pre-plumbed, pre-wired utility systems directly into the MSBP components on-line.

A continuous bonded seam then fuses rigid exterior facings of fiber-reinforced cement composite onto the leading and trailing edges of each panel passing down the assembly line. Within a temperature and humidity controlled clean room factory environment, entire floors including slab substrate, floor joists, wall panels and roof decks fully enclosed are finished and ready for swift on-site stacking.

According to Lida Group engineers, production runs utilizing these automated mass-manufacturing techniques can yield multiple entire 300-500 unit apartment buildings worth of prefabricated floor, wall and roof components simultaneously from a single facility. Through continuous advances in factory output capabilities, Lida Group envisions eventually producing enough MSBPs to construct over 20,000 housing units per year at full planned capacities.

Rapid Onsite Assembly

With complete floors, walls and roof panels pre-constructed, assembly on-site progresses as a true “construction system” according to factory-developed protocols. Massive mobile cranes lift entire preassembled floor modules directly from transport vehicles up the building exterior where they slot precisely into place story-by-story with no additional work required.

All finishing joints between MSBP components leverage the factory-applied seamless reinforced edges, eliminating the typical delays from on-site sealing or attachment tasks. Within only a few days a basic building enclosure can be erected to full design height using the progressive stacking methodology. With exterior envelope completed, interior outfitting and interior finishing naturally accelerates unimpeded by weather sensitive tasks.

According to project schedules, the preassembly/progressive stacking erection technique can construct basic occupiable enclosure for a 20-story, 200-unit apartment building in an unprecedented speed of only 15 working days from arriving on-site—compared to 8 months or more using standard construction practices reliant on unpredictable jobsite tasks.

Additional Advantages of the System

Beyond sheer acceleration of construction schedules, Lida Group’s breakthrough MSBP system supports greater affordability, sustainability and constructability compared to traditional multi-story building methods. Continuous insulation enclosures produced under strict factory quality controls achieve R-values 2-3 times building codes with zero thermal bridging or air leakage vulnerabilities.

Life cycle energy modeling demonstrates potential 50-70% savings in operational costs for the structure over designs meeting minimum standards used widely today according to researchers. Passive design advantages both improve resident comfort and curb GHG outputs due to heating/cooling over decades of community habitation.

With close to zero construction waste realized during optimized off-site pre-assembly, natural resources are conserved with reduced virgin material consumption versus unpredictable on-site methods. Less-skilled labor is required for stacking modular envelopes versus specialist multi-trade collaboration needed to raise standard multi-story structures – further maximizing efficiency and affordability.

Without impacts to schedule from common job site issues like weather delays or material access, risk-adjusted project costs benefit greatly. Developers cite potential 30-50% reductions in total construction budgets utilizing Lida Group’s innovative new prefabrication approaches. Through optimization and scaling of MSBP production, further savings are passed directly to buyers/tenants in pricing of apartment units.

According to Lida Group representatives, the company aims to mass produce MSBP components at scales matching automotive industry milestones within 5 years – over 100,000 housing units annually per facility. With multi-story construction driving urban density needs, prefabricated systems show immense promise in sustainably and efficiently constructing tomorrow’s cities using rapid, cost-effective modular techniques developed through diligent innovation.

In conclusion, Lida Group’s innovative new Multi-Story Building Panel technology transcends boundaries of what has previously been possible through prefabrication. Moving entire enclosed structures off-site into a factory and progressively stacking complete shells on location unlocks unrivaled speed, quality, affordability and scalability for mid-rise construction projects. By optimizing production line techniques to the highest degree, their system realizes the immense benefits building larger can provide when combined with off-site manufacturing capabilities. This breakthrough demonstrates how transformative prefabrication at the cutting edge of precision, automation and mass scale holds potential to revolutionize how communities are shaped globally into the future.

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