Brick-making machine

So, you're designing a brick making machine?

I would assume its been done before, here in the UK we used to make them by hand, but people got fed up of odd shaped bricks and about 100 years ago we started using machines - now the bricks are nice and uniform in shape...

Why re-invent the wheel??

John.

This machine would be used in sub-sahara africa where these bricks are still being made by hand.

You could direct me to companies in U.K which sell them.

Thank you.

The 3.6" for a full cycle could be too short. You should look at 2 parallel flows.

Could you please enlighten me more on this?

I think nickname is suggesting that the speed you want of 1000 bricks per hour is 3.6 bricks per second and one machine would not be capable of meeting that speed, so you may have to use two machines side by side.

John.

If you look at the cycle which starts with the empty form and ends with an empty-ed form it has to be done in 3.6 " since 1h=3600" and divided by 1000 one comes to the above mentioned cycle time. I estimate that the number of steps is such that it will be difficult to maintain this frequency and assure a good mtbf. It is not necessary to have 2 machines but it should be necessary, may be, to have in one machine two parallel flows.

By the way if you want to make 1000 bricks per hour then you want to make about 0.2777 bricks per second (1000/3600) and not 3.6

As engineers we have to deal with precise values.

3,6 sec is the cycle time, but it doesn't mean that an individual brick goes from start to finish in 3.6 sec. It just means that that is the time to go from one station to another. you would probably have a rough fill, compaction, screed, strip, mold clean, and coat with 'release' steps.

As a high school kid I worked in a tile factory on the Pala reservation - for two weeks. It was a miserable job because I was the only guy small enough to go underground and shovel the sand that leaked out of the hopper from the badly adjusted belt. Sometimes they would run the belt, and the air powered vibrators on the side of the sand bin, while I was still in there. The factory is gone now as the indians are making money hand over fist with gambling and have no need to grub aorund in mud and concrete.

Anyway, if you have to let the bricks dry somewhat before you strip the molds off then you will need a LOT of molds. If not you will need pretty tight controls on the consistency of the clay, which is probably a good thing to have anyway. The tile molds we used for making cement roofing tile were stamped steel and were dipped in some kind of oil just prior to being fed into the machine so that the concrete would be removable after the concrete set. The tiles set for about twelve ours before being pulled off the molds so they had what must have been tens of thousands of molds.

All depends on the Clay that you are using.....and the product finsh you want to end up with.

You can hand throw bricks into wooden moulds at this rate....however the finish is very rustic and your clay prep plant is using a higher moisture content.

If you go to extrusion then the clay preperation is a little more complex etrc etc of coarse this then comes out as a long slug and requires a cutter to make into the brick size required.

Let me know if I and be of any further assistance

Best Regards

Andy Hall

andy@cds-concrete.com

please forward more details about the bricks making machine

Thanks for your interest. I will do that shortly.

Hi Grego, if you havent received any info on equipments to make 1000 bricks per hour, please send your communication details to mizun@bol.net.in

I will send you full details on clay mixing, and brick moulding/cutting.

What about drying and baking?? You will use natural sunshine and grass/coal firing or mechanised system?

Best wishes,

mizun