Manufacturing process of Bricks

The manufacturing process of bricks generally consists the following steps, they are Gathering, crushing, grinding, screening, and mixing the raw materials; brick making and setting, drying, firing, packaging and inventorying the final products.

Preparation of Raw Material

Manufacturing process of bricks begins with collecting surface clays and shale from the quarry. In the preparation for crushing, raw materials are transported to storage.  The crusher breaks up the large pieces of clay passes it to conveyers heading for the grinders. The materials are crushed by the grinders to a fine consistency.  The crushed material passes over a vibrating screen, in which the fine material will be passes through to the next step and the coarse material is returned to the grinder. Till this the material will be kept dry. Soon after screened, the materials will be sent to the pug mill, where it will be tempered to for shaping in the required brick form. The pug mill consists of a chamber that has one or two revolving shafts with attachment of blades rigidly, which mixes the material thoroughly, water is added provide proper plasticity and manganese are added to change the body color.

Making Process

The next step in manufacturing process of bricks is to make the material into shape of brick. Handmade, machine molded or extruded are used to shape the material. In Handmade method, a soft mixture is passed through the extruder; it is cut into slugs and conveyed to work stations. Then the slugs are picked up, rolled in sand and thrown into a pre sanded wooden mold. In machine molded, bricks are made from clay material is mixed with water and positioned in the machine that squashes the wet mix into molds. Then the mold box is bumped and dumped.  The variety of sands is used to keep brick from sticking in the molds.

Setting and Drying

Once the brick is formed using the above mentioned method, the unit is sent into Kiln cars. Before sending into kiln the unfired or green brick should be dried. The drying process is done by keeping the green brick in enclosed dryers.

Firing and Packing

The continuous tunnel kiln involves the combination of vertical and horizontal drafts. The preheating, cooling, and burning is done in the zone where the temperature varies up to 2000 degree. When the green brick enters the kiln, the manufacturer will determine the type of firing required for producing the color. After coming out of Kiln, the brick is allowed to cool before handling.

Questions:

• Explain manufacturing process of brick?
• What are steps followed for manufacturing process of bricks?