TERRABRIC MACHINE

The Terrabric Machine is a ruggedly constructed soil-cement brick making machine. It is made from substantial steel sections with "axle steel" shafts. The top round shaft is case hardened carbon steel. This ensures that the equipment is able to withstand the high pressures involved in making compressed soil bricks. Design concepts are examined in detail: Robust assemblies are tested in the field: Parts are manufactured: 16mm steel moulding cases: Palletted Terrabric Machines ready to ship: The Terrabric machine can be set up to be portable (total weight 80 kg). It can be bolted to a plank, two poles or bolted down onto a concrete footing. The footing should be about 600 x 400mm in area and knee-deep. Use 4 x 12mm foundation bolts. This Terrabric Machine is shown bolted to two 4-metre wooden poles to make it portable. The unit is most easily moved by two porters with the machine hanging upside down. The pictures in the right column of this page show a machine bolted to a concrete base. The Terrabric Machine uses a minimum amount of water to make bricks. The bricks can be made from either a mixture of soil and cement or subsoil only (depending on your requirements). This cuts out transport costs for crushed stone and sand. The finished brick size is 290 mm x 154mm x 108mm. This can make standard 4-1/2 6 and 9 inch walls. Because they are made under high pressure (about 5Mpa) the bricks are solid, smooth-surfaced with high strength and good insulation properties compared with sand-cement bricks. Production is about 100 bricks per person on the team, ie.: 6 people in the team = 600 per day. The limit is about 1200 bricks per machine per day. The most common use of the bricks is in making 6 inch walls for single story buildings. The coverage is 30 per square metre. Other sizes of Terrabrics can be made by special order. These are "Super Bricks" (a standard South African size), metric measurements (any sizes) and stock bricks. One version of the Terrabric Machine makes 2 stock bricks (229 x 110 x 75mm) at a time. This machine can also be used to mould Clay Bricks for firing. Fired clay stock bricks are frequently moulded with a method called "slop moulding". This requires a lot of work and water. Using a 2-Brick Terrabric Machine saves a lot of work, water and waste. There is less srinkage as there is less water put into the brick in the first place. Some clays are unsuitable for slop moulding because they shrink too much, but they can be used if they are pressed into shape by a 2-Brick Terrabric Machine before firing. The 2-Up version is more expensive, heavier, harder to operate correctly and produces a lower volume of bricks per day, however it makes some projects viable where no other technology will work. 2-Up Terrabric Machine making 'frogged' bricks: