Automated Machinery Catapults Prefab Home Manufacturing

Product design manager at Dvele shows us how automated machinery is move the building industry forward by leaps and bounds.

In this video, Colm McKee, product design manager at Dvele, explains how Dvele’s building process uses cutting-edge materials and methods that aren’t readily available to local, on-site builders. The level of precision, efficiency and cost savings that comes from this building technique is why modular homes are becoming increasingly desirable to consumers. 

McKee manages the CNC files for the modular home factory. “Every bit of steel that you see in the modules from the wall studs, the headers, the blocking–it’s all represented in our digital models. And designing like this allows us to coordinate our plumbing, our electrical and our mechanical to a really high level. It allows us to punch holes in every stud that needs it,” McKee elaborates.

McKee shows us around his corner of the Dvele factory, chock full form rollers. He explains how steel is purchased in bulk, then rolled through machines, and bent into the profiles used in homes.  “At that time,” McKee explains, “our CNC files are plugged into the machines, and they spit out the material in almost like a lego format.”

This process of designing with CNC files greatly reduces waste while increasing efficiency and accuracy in the manufacturing process. Mckee shows the impressively small waste bin and what the punchouts look like. He explains that these cutouts will soon be recycled and reused as steel connectors.

“We are using as much in-house material as possible and minimizing waste,” McKee concludes.

Visit the VISION House Transcend site to learn about Green Builder Media’s collaboration with Dvele on a new home design and future Transcend communities. Check out Dvele’s website to learn more about the design and manufacturing processes that go into producing highly efficient, healthy and resilient prefabricated homes.