Providing adequate low-budget housing for millions of people is a central goal of development policy in the twenty-first century. Escalating world population growth means that this goal cannot be achieved by conventional methods. For this reason, KraussMaffei is working intensively on solutions that will make it possible to build large numbers of houses efficiently and at an affordable cost.

KraussMaffei develops, builds and markets systems for continuous production of sandwich panels used in efficient, low-cost houses. To illustrate the practicality of this approach, KraussMaffei has developed a prefab house. The walls and ceilings are made of sandwich panels. These are produced in a continuous process where the steel or aluminum outer layers of the panels are bonded with a core layer of polyurethane or mineral wool for thermal insulation. The materials used in a specific project can be selected for easy local availability.
The house design is based on increments of a basic dimension. The basic dimension can be taken from a local building material (eg, size of bricks, door or window widths, regional standards) and the panels manufactured to match. It is also possible to incorporate specific architectural preferences into the standardized incremental system. The KraussMaffei prefab house has the lowest possible count of different elements, in order to keep costs down and make the house quick and easy to manufacture and erect. The basic house can be upgraded, if required, for example, by facing interior walls with plasterboard or cladding the outer walls.

Mobile production systems

The flexible manufacturing concept makes it possible to produce the sandwich panels on-site where a new housing complex is being built. This mobility is a significant benefit, especially in providing emergency housing after natural disasters. One example of the almost limitless mobility would be to have the manufacturing system installed on board a ship operated by a charity and anchored near the disaster location.