Prefabricated Structure

in construction, a structure assembled from prepared components that do not require additional treatment, such as cutting or fitting, at the building site. The components of prefabricated structures are manufactured of various materials, for example, steel, concrete, reinforced concrete, wood, asbestos cement, aluminum alloys, and plastics, in specialized plants of the construction industry or in on-site yards.

In the USSR, the development of the production of prefabricated structures and the expansion of areas for their use are major trends in the industrialization of construction. The use of prefabricated structures makes it possible to perform the most labor-intensive operations in industrial plants with highly efficient equipment for the production of the prefabricated components. The joining of prefabricated structures at building sites and the handling and unloading operations in transporting such structures are accomplished, with minimal expenditures of manual labor, by using assembly equipment, such as cranes and loaders. These operating conditions for prefabricated structures permit a significant reduction in the labor and expense required in construction, a shortening of the time required to erect buildings and structures, and an improvement in the quality of the work.

Prefabricated structures are suitable only in the case of high-volume use of individual prefabricated components and a minimum number of standard sizes of those components. For this reason, provision is made for the predominant use of standardized parts (principally, large-size items) in prefabricated construction.

Prefabricated structures may also be demountable, depending on the type of connections used. This is very efficient in the erection of various temporary structures, especially in regions with difficult access. In the USSR the principal type of prefabricated structures are precast reinforced concrete components and units.