Trade Journals for the Concrete Industry

Small concrete products for street, garden and landscape construction are mainly manufactured on block making machines. Fig. 1 shows the structural principle of a block making machine. The manufacturing method for these products is described by the complex interaction of sub-processes, as illustrated in typical fashion in the sequential diagram in fig. 2. Block making machines are usually equipped with two oppositely positioned hoppers and corresponding feed boxes. This makes it possible to process two different sorts of concrete, e.g. core concrete and facing concrete, in one production cycle. The central unit of the filling equipment is the feed box. Hydraulically or electrically driven, it transports the concrete mixture by means of a more or less complex translation movement from the take-over position under the mixture hopper to the mould. From the method schematic and the diagram in fig. 2, it is clear that there are a great many influencing factors that ultimately determine the quality of the concrete product. The height of the blocks and the gross density of the fresh concrete are thereby important quality criteria. The filling process, which is very complex, has previously never been adequately examined. This subject will be examined and analysed in detail in this article.