Making bricks at home. Brick firing at home - we produce high-quality material

Brick has been used as a building material for a long time. This happened about a thousand years ago. Its first variants began to be made from clay. In order to get an ordinary red brick, the clay mass will need to be fired at a temperature of more than a thousand degrees.

Most often, brick houses were produced in the area where the summer is quite hot. There was no need to use any ovens, but you could simply trust the action of ultraviolet radiation. This brick will serve as an excellent building material for the construction of one-story buildings or any outbuildings.

Clay mining

The quality characteristics of the clay will depend on the area in which you live. In this case, it will be located at a distance of several tens of centimeters from the surface. Clay is mined directly on their sites, or you can use public deposits or special quarries.

To determine the presence of clay in the soil, it is necessary to take a sample of it and add a little water. If it becomes a little oily, then there is a high probability of finding clay in this place.

How high-quality material you produce will depend on the fat content of the source material. This characteristic you can determine yourself. To do this, you need to take samples of the earth in half a kilogram from different places on your site. Then mix it with water until the mixture starts to stick to your hands. From the resulting composition, it is necessary to make a ball with a diameter of five centimeters. Their number must be at least ten. This operation must be performed for each individual sample. After that, the resulting balls are left to dry for several days.

For those samples that flowed during the drying process, a very oily clay was used. It is worth adding a little quartz sand to it. Those samples that remained intact are subjected to the next experiment. It must be dropped from a height of one meter and if it does not fall apart, then this raw material is ideal for the production of bricks.

It should be noted that lean clays are not characterized by the presence of cracks, however, its strength is low. Therefore, to improve their quality, a little earth should be added. It is important to make sand and clay in several stages. At the same time, the quality of the mixture will need to be checked regularly until we find the ideal proportion.

In the absence of a good deposit near your home, you can always buy clay in special quarries.

What is raw brick?

In order to manufacture this species building material, three methods can be used:

1. Do not burn the brick and add straw or adobe to the mixture;
2. Do not burn raw materials (raw);
3. Ordinary red brick - by firing the material.

Adobe

The main thing in the production of this building material is to use only high-quality raw materials and dry it well. Only in this case adobe construction material will almost completely correspond to the red brick.

Subject to all the rules and regulations, housing made of adobe can serve you for more than seventy years. The walls must be made thick enough, because only then in this building it will be warm in the cold season and cool in the hot months.

To mix the composition of adobe, a special container should be prepared. We combine two types of clay: lean and oily. We mix clay and straw in a ratio of 1:1:5. Also add some water and mix thoroughly with a shovel.

Brick molds should be prepared in advance. To do this, you can use boards or unnecessary pieces of plywood.

Before starting the mixing process, chop the straw well. Take this procedure very carefully, as the size of its pieces will affect the strength of the future solution. We recommend using wheat stalks.

After that, we do everything according to this instruction:

1. Thoroughly mixed solution must be poured into molds. To make the extraction process easier, the mold must be moistened with water or sprinkled with cement. It is important to compact the solution well. Let's cover with a lid. After some time, it must be removed, turn the form over and remove the product;
2. The next step is to dry the brick. In this case, the evaporation of excess moisture occurs, which will change the original dimensions of the material. Further, the volume will not decrease, although the moisture has completely come out. Therefore, you should continue the drying process under a canopy.

Bricks should be placed in such a way that the sun does not fall directly on them. It is difficult to determine the exact amount for drying, because it depends on climatic conditions and humidity.

The resulting material is not very resistant to moisture, so the walls outside the building require additional protection:

• Make overhangs on the roof at least sixty centimeters;
• It is good to bandage the seams of the masonry;
• Doors and windows must be at least one and a half meters from the corners;
• When the walls dry and sit down, they need to be plastered.

In order to make a clay brick without adding straw, we do everything in the same way as adobe. We only replace straw with sand in a ratio of one to five. It is best to use quartz sand of the finest fraction.

How to make fired brick?

You should be aware that brick firing is a rather complicated process. It is unlikely that you can do it yourself at home. At the same time, it is rational to produce a small batch for production at home in the initial conditions.

Raw burning processes:

• warming up;
• directly firing;
• cooling, which should occur gradually.

Home burnt brick

Now let's take a closer look at each of these processes.

Burning

The simplest method of firing can be done in a metal barrel. Before this, both bottoms should be removed and placed on an iron stove without a top. This process can also take place at the stake. Bricks must be laid one on one, while making a small distance between them. The barrel is covered with a metal lid. This will keep it from getting too much air.

In order to properly burn a brick, you will have to keep the fire going for twenty hours.

The process ensures the evaporation of all unnecessary chemical compounds. This allows the clay to move to a new state.

Cooling process

It is very important that the barrel filled with bricks cool down in several stages. You must regulate this process yourself by reducing the degree of burning of the fire. The temperature drops slowly. When you reach the mark of six hundred and fifty degrees, you can accelerate. It will be possible to open it only after the final cooling - this will happen in five to six hours.

Perhaps, how correctly the cooling process goes will be the most important point. This is due to the fact that with a sharp decrease in temperature, hot material can crack. Therefore, the supply of cold air should be done gradually.

Brick making video

The next step is to check the quality of the material obtained. For this it is necessary finished material break into two parts. Carefully examine the quality inside the brick, it should be uniform and uniform. These parts must be filled with water and left in this state for several hours. Color and quality should remain the same. Only such building material can be safely used to build a house.

Brick as a building material has been known to mankind for a long time. A few thousand years ago, they learned how to make it without high-tech machines and equipment. These simple vintage technology allow you to establish the production of bricks at home. The raw material for this is ordinary clay and several additives. Finished products can be baked at high temperatures to obtain a durable material, or simply dried in the sun. From such material it is possible to build any structures, from utility rooms to residential buildings. If you want to know more about history, then Wikipedia on this issue or a history forum will help you.

• brick manufacturing technology
• Unfired brick
• Red brick

The characteristics of the finished product depend primarily on the quality of the raw materials. Use for the production of ordinary clay. She, however, also happens to be of different quality. Clay is suitable for the manufacture of the material, which becomes oily when water is added to it. Known for a long time proven methods of testing clay. Samples are taken from different areas. They make a cake and a small ball. All samples air dry naturally. High-quality raw materials are those that will not crack in the form of a cake and will not crack when dropped to the ground from a height of 1 m.

brick manufacturing technology

Unfired brick

The simplest technology is the production of unfired material. This includes raw brick and adobe. The adobe brick, when properly manufactured and dried, is not inferior in characteristics to fired products. Buildings are often made from it in the southern regions, since the temperature in an adobe building is always approximately the same.

In order to make adobe bricks, you will need a container. Its sides should be low so that it is convenient to mix. The container must be loaded with a mixture of one part clay, one part water and five parts straw. The last component must be carefully crushed. The size of the straw affects the strength of the future building material. Wheat straw is best. Then everything mixes well.

Manufacture of adobe bricks.

Even before the start of manufacturing, wooden molds are prepared according to the size of standard bricks. To do this, you need boards and plywood. The thickness of the timber should be 2.5 cm. more shapes can be made, the more efficient production will be.

1. The prepared forms are filled with the solution. Before this, the inner surfaces are moistened with water and sprinkled with cement. This simplifies the removal of products from the molds. During filling, the molds are shaken well so that the solution evenly fills the entire inside. The remaining solution is removed and the mold is covered with a lid. For some time, the forms are left to solidify.
2. The best method for drying is naturally. Products are stacked on racks equipped under a canopy. It is not recommended to leave them in the open sun. Drying can take from one to two weeks, depending on the air temperature. The water from the solution evaporates and the dry particles adhere. This results in shrinkage of the material by approximately 15%.

Adobe brick is not very moisture resistant, so after laying it is protected by plastering outside buildings or stack siding.

Raw brick is a building material made of unbaked clay, in which sand is used instead of straw. For its production, wooden forms are also used - spans. Usually they are made double. In order for all products to be of the same shape and have identical properties, it is important to correctly calculate the amount of sand and determine the fat content of clay. The smaller it is, the more the product shrinks during drying. Today, when determining these parameters, a special table technology is used.

Clay compressibility is usually determined empirically. A cube is molded from the solution, with sides of 20 cm, diagonals are pressed on the sides, 10 mm deep. The prototype dries in natural conditions. Then measure the depth of the dried grooves. Each millimeter equals 1% compressibility. An indicator from 5 to 10 indicates that such raw materials are suitable for making high-quality raw bricks. It is important to note that if the shrinkage percentage is less than 5, then such clay will make the material brittle.

Red brick

The production of red brick (fired) is much more difficult. At home, this is beneficial to do if you need a small batch for your own needs. The main and most important operation in the whole process is firing. It consists of several stages:

• heating of workpieces;
• keeping at high temperature;
• cooling.

To get a high-quality clay brick, you need to observe the temperature and time conditions at all stages of the process. Drying takes place at a temperature of 150 degrees. A rapid increase in it can lead to the destruction of the product, as it is released a large number of pair. This should happen gradually. Clay passes into a new, ceramic state at a temperature of +800 to +1200 degrees, depending on the properties of the primary raw material. There are concepts of fusible and refractory clays.

What is the price facing brick? The wholesale price, depending on the region, is from 11 rubles per piece.

Cooling occurs by gradually lowering the temperature in the oven. At first very slowly, and when the temperature reaches +650 degrees - faster. The whole process will take about 5-6 hours. You can take out the products only after they have completely cooled down. If cold air enters the oven before this, the products will become brittle and crack.

The resulting products must be checked for strength before laying. The prototype is broken into two parts, visually inspected and soaked in water for a while. After that, it should not crumble, be uniform in color and throughout the structure. If so, then your product is of high quality, and you can think about the scale of your brick production and entering the market in this small business niche.

Business idea: brick production at home, how to open a mini workshop?
Where do we do business: private house, workshop, rented premises
Main costs: purchase of equipment for production, purchase of materials, electricity
Required equipment: brick making machine, molds
Consumables: sand, cement, water, dyes
Initial capital: from 200,000 rubles. up to 1,500,000 rubles
Payback period: from 6 to 18 months
Possible profit: from 35,000 rubles. up to 200,000 rubles

Brick is a unique material that combines high strength and good warmth and soundproofing characteristics. What's more, it is also easy to operate and operate, eco-friendly, flame retardant, earthquake resistant, durable, non-shrinking. All buildings that are made of brick do not need any special maintenance and control.

Payback mini brick factory

Practice has shown that a mini brick plant can pay off in a few years. Accordingly, this business is highly profitable and promising. Since this business option does not require the installation of treatment facilities, it will be possible to organize production in any industrial premises. The purchase of equipment is accompanied by the provision of design estimates, service maintenance and commissioning, as well as training of personnel.

Equipment for independent production of bricks.

Brick Making Equipment

With the help of a universal, mobile, automatic semi-dry pressing press, it is possible to produce brick products from any type of clay, as well as from screenings, flour, shell slag, waste from brick factories.

The press includes an automatic rotary table, divided into 3 sections: 1. loading 2. molding 3. outlet.

The device is very efficient in operation. This equipment can be used in field conditions. With its help, silicate, facing, colored bricks are produced, which are later given the texture of torn stone. Our market offers huge selection equipment for the production of bricks different cost. Inexpensive option- This is a mechanical machine that allows you to produce bricks in three sizes. The principle of its operation is based on the compression of the working mixture (clay, sifting, cement) in a special matrix-form by manual pressure. The machine contains a dosing device and a hopper that allows loading. It is worth noting that the machine is easy to operate, it can work without electricity, which is very important.

Another popular type of equipment is "hyperpress". The hyperpress is equipped with a standard matrix designed for the manufacture of more than 30 positions of bricks and facing tiles. It is important that the production of hyper pressed bricks is more economical and cost-effective.

Mini brick production line.

Machine for the production of bricks.

The set of equipment can also include molds for the production of bricks.

Brick production technology.

Before organizing a business, it is necessary to select and study the production technology. It must be taken into account, however, that the use traditional technologies, which involve the production of bricks by plastic molding can only be profitable if it covers about 30 million pieces per year. Indeed, in such a project it is necessary to invest at least 1 billion rubles.

Another, more accessible technology for the production of bricks is hyperpressing. The material that is made in accordance with this technology is very common and used, and also has good quality characteristics. In addition, the degree of its frost resistance and strength is several times higher than that of its "traditional counterparts".

Brick production is carried out using waste from industries such as mining, asbestos, cement, and metallurgical industries.

The next stage is the drying of the brick. This process is very responsible and difficult. If for this purpose we use a brick mini-factory, then the cost of finished high-quality brick will not be too high, since the amount of defective products will be small. In the process of evaporation of moisture, the particles in the workpiece will approach each other as surface tension increases, which will reduce the volume of the brick. Shrinkage continues until reaching 15% of the indicator. After that, a decrease in volumes is noted, although the physically bound liquid is still not completely evaporated. To make the drying process better, you need to use an equipped rack with a canopy. Moreover, it is necessary to ensure that the bricks are well ventilated and that direct sunlight does not fall on them. The duration of the drying process is influenced by temperature, humidity, as well as the mobility of the outside air. As a rule, this process takes from 6 to 15 days. It is worth noting that such a raw brick has a rather low water resistance, so the walls of a building erected from such a brick must be protected from moisture.

Financial plan.

Profitability of brick production.

Staff

To operate the machines, you will need three people, whose duties will include monitoring the operation of the machines, filling the mixer with raw materials, and receiving the finished brick. It should be noted that modern mini brick factories are very safe and practically harmless. To fully staff the plant's staff, do not forget about the warehouse worker who will be responsible for keeping records of raw materials and finished products.

You may also need a driver with a cargo vehicle.

It is not worth hiring an accountant for a permanent job, thanks to changes in legislation, small businesses must submit reports every three months, so it will be enough for you to use the services of such a professional once every three months.

You will also need a cleaning lady and a caretaker.

Sales issues

The most important thing in this business is sales. Please note that if the brick production line is idle, you will lose a large amount of money. Therefore, you must take care of the uninterrupted sale of bricks. The main consumers of bricks, as a rule, are construction sites, but most of them already have contracts with factories, so concluding a contract with them can be a very troublesome business. Another active brick consumer is private sector. It is this area that should help your company in the first stage. If you produce quality products, then you will very soon gain high popularity.

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Forward -

Brick is an excellent building material that has been used for several millennia. It is a stone of the correct geometric shape, obtained by firing or non-firing method. In this case, various grades of clay and its mixtures are used. A consequence of the high temperature regime during firing is the red color of the product. Environmentally friendly material can be useful when building your own cottage, country house, garages, outbuildings, fences with original arches for the entry of cars, baths, stoves, barbecues, etc.

Due to the growth of private and dacha construction became popular with their own hands, as it does not involve special material costs.

In order to manufacture such products, it is necessary to carry out work in several stages. They include the extraction of clay in a quarry, the preparation of clay dough, the formation of molds, their filling, drying blanks. Let's consider each stage in detail.

Extraction of raw materials in a quarry

For the manufacture of 1000 pieces of bricks, approximately 2.5 cubic meters of raw materials are needed. The tools used are brush cutters, picks, crowbars, bayonet and shovels, pitchforks with frequent teeth, wheelbarrows for transporting raw materials to the storage site. The deposit is chosen not far from the place where the manufacture of bricks is supposed. It is best to do this in a dry place, not subject to flooding by precipitation, groundwater and snow water.

Preparatory work involves the removal of all cover unsuitable for production. Clearing overgrown with shrubs and small trees areas are produced by means of brush cutters. After that, they are engaged in the construction of access roads. For convenient extraction and export of raw materials, they dig a trench. Over time, it is deepened to the base of the developed layer, providing a convenient entry into the quarry.

Dense and frozen layers are mined with picks and crowbars. Loose layers more acceptable for mining are pointed or semicircular bayonet shovels. The extracted material is loaded onto wheelbarrows with the help of shovels, and if it sticks to the shovel, a pitchfork with frequent teeth is used. The wheelbarrow can be transported to the place of storage of raw materials on a flat surface, which is formed with the help of boards laid on the ground. The material is laid cone-shaped, the height should not exceed 1 m. It is best to form several similar piles with an average base diameter of 1-1.5 m.

Making clay dough

The clay delivered from the quarry is heterogeneous in its structure. It is oily and non-greasy. To obtain high-quality bricks, raw materials must be prepared and tested. During preparatory operations, stones and other inclusions are removed from it. The most inappropriate are lumps of limestone. During the firing process, if necessary, they turn into boiling lime. When water gets on it, the lime begins to be extinguished, forming defects on the products. The prepared material is checked for fat content. For the sample, take as much raw material as is placed in a half-liter jar, place it in a bowl, add a small amount of water. After doing the warm-up test manually.

When the clay absorbs all the water and begins to stick to your hands, the dough is ready. Having received a thick dough, a ball of 40-50 mm and a cake of 100 mm in diameter are rolled out of it. Such actions are performed for each sample of raw materials. Balls and cakes are dried for 2-3 days. If, as a result, cracks appear on the cakes, then the clay is too oily and the composition needs to be adjusted. In the case when cracks did not occur, and a clay ball thrown from a height of 1 m did not crumble and did not crack, the fat content of the clay can be considered optimal.

A dried clay ball is one way to determine the optimal structure of a clay dough.

At the same time, it should be noted that the thrown balls of greasy clay will crack when they fall. If it is non-greasy, the balls will crumble. In this case, the fat content should be corrected by mixing both types together or adding sand to each type in several stages, each time checking the quality of the clay. Such work is done until the desired proportion and normal structure of the raw material is obtained. The optimal structure of clay dough is the main component of how to make good quality bricks at home.

Making molds for drying

The necessary material is boards 20-25 mm thick and plywood sheets. Boards are laid on a sheet of plywood and strengthened in such a way that many cells of the same size are obtained. Based on the fact that the raw material shrinks up to 15% during drying, the molds should have dimensions larger than the standard dimensions of products (250 × 120 × 65 mm) by 15%. Details of equipment are fixed with long nails. For better adhesion of the clay dough to the molds, they are provided with conical protrusions that create voids in the bricks. The protrusions are best made in plywood, which will serve as a removable cover. Note that the performance depends on the number of forms.

The inner surface of the molds is pre-moistened with water, sprinkled with cement in order to facilitate the process of removing blank bricks. Clay dough with a moisture content of 20-25% is distributed into cells and shaken. Thanks to this, the clay fills the corners in the molds. Excess is removed with metal plates. After the form is closed with a lid. After a while, it opens. The blanks are removed from the molds and placed on air-drying racks.

Unloading semi-finished products from molds

During the drying process, moisture from semi-finished products moves from the inner layers to the outer ones, and it evaporates from the surface. Surface tension forces expand the outer clay layers and contract the inner ones. The natural drying process is carried out under a canopy. Semi-finished products are unloaded onto a rack or a leveled ground surface, having previously poured an underlying layer 1-2 cm thick from dry sand and straw.

The purpose of the underlying layer is to prevent the workpieces from sticking to the plane, to ensure their uniform drying on the lower plane and the ability to conveniently shift, move semi-finished products if necessary. In temperate climates, outdoor drying can be applied. In case of precipitation, they are stocked with a removable waterproof film. The drying process lasts 8-10 days. This evaporates approximately 80-85% of the moisture contained in the workpiece. And the remaining 15% is removed during firing.

After the end of the drying process, the resulting raw brick is removed from the molds and proceed to masonry work. It is necessary to make a reservation that raw brick is not used for facing work, but only for interior work. It should be remembered that the product has low water resistance.

The walls that are built from it must be protected from moisture. To this end, in the masonry, it is necessary to carefully bandage the seams. Door and window openings are provided at a distance of 1.5 m from the corner of the room. The overhang of the roof, forming a canopy over the walls and protecting them from getting wet during precipitation, must have a length of at least 600 mm. When the raw brick wall is completely dry, it must be faced with siding or red fired brick with beautiful smooth surfaces.

Bricks for cladding are made in batch kilns by firing. The firing technology takes place in a floor kiln of batch or temporary action in several stages.

Batch oven device

The site for the furnace is chosen, if possible, on an elevated place, inaccessible to sedimentary and ground water. It is cleared of the plant layer, after which they are engaged in horizontal planning and tamping. The smallest furnace is designed for a capacity of 1500 pcs. finished products. Its width is 1.6 m, length is 2 m, laying height is from 160 to 185 cm. The walls of the furnace are built from raw brick one brick thick.

The roof is built on metal frame, if each row of bricks of the vault lies on two strips of steel or rods, which are mounted by welding, forming a frame. Above the laying of bricks, the arch in the middle must have a height of at least 35 cm. The firebox or hearth is a through corridor 50 cm wide, 40 cm high. Along its entire length, ledges are made at a height of 25 cm on both walls. Grizzlies are then placed there with coal fuel.

When using firewood as fuel, grates can be omitted. Also, a small square door 40 × 40 cm is provided in the furnace. The vault is equipped with smoke channels with a cross section of 25 × 28 cm. With low-calorie fuel (peat, brown coal), holes of 25 × 15 cm are provided with lids used to supply fuel. A brick chimney is erected up to 5 m in height with an internal section of 40 × 40 cm.

It is installed near the furnace, behind it, connecting to the smoke channel. It is located in the back wall. In the middle of the wall, holes are left for viewing, they are subsequently laid with bricks, covered with clay. For laying the side and rear walls, the arch, the pipe, the corners of the front wall, a traditional clay-sand mortar is used. Without mortar, a part of the front wall is laid, which will be dismantled for cutting the cage.

Roasting raw bricks in a kiln

After bricking, the wall is coated with clay. Well-dried raw material is placed in the oven. The laying process is carried out so that in the first three rows the gaps between them are 15 mm. This applies to semi-finished products located near the combustion chamber itself. As you move away from it, the gaps increase to 25 mm. The laying of the rows is carried out with a “lattice”, “herringbone”, the methods can be applied alternately. The only condition is that each raw material placed in the kiln is completely covered by flue gases. A distance of up to 25 mm is provided between the bricks of the cage and the walls of the furnace. After laying the blanks, the firing process begins. The stove is heated with straw, brushwood, firewood.

The first stage of firing is the most critical. The blanks are dried, it is necessary to heat moderately, using low-calorie fuel. When internal moisture is removed from the product, drying is completed. The amount of moisture is determined by the condensate on the upper rows. Usually drying takes 10-12 hours. After removing the internal moisture, the heating process begins, the furnace is heated more intensively. The brick gradually acquires a dark red color. Heating duration - up to 9 hours.

After that, they begin to drown so that the fire goes out, increasing the fuel supply. When a flame is shown at the top of the furnace, the lower rows turn yellow, and the upper rows become a soft red hue. The oven is left to cool. At the same time, the furnace is laid with bricks, coated with clay, the upper part is sprinkled with dry earth or brick dust with a layer of 10-15 cm. After 6 hours, the furnace door is opened to ventilate and completely cool the furnace. When the furnace has cooled down, its front wall is disassembled, the cage is cut, starting from the upper rows. After the finished product is removed, it is sorted. High-quality bricks are stacked. Products that have not completely gone through the firing process are used in structures with the lowest bearing load.

Scheme of a multi-furnace furnace and shrinkage of raw bricks for
charcoal firing.

The advantage of making bricks at home is that it does not require high costs for modern facilities mechanization, and only improvised materials and tools are used. The result of all the work is a beautiful high-quality brick.