The Brick Shape is Formed by Auto Brick Machine

The auto brick machine is the machine to make bricks.Specifically most bricks are formed by two basic process,that is, extrusion and soft mud moulding.

Auto Brick machine makes bricks by extrusion

The clay body is mixed to a fairly stiff texture and is then loaded into an extruder(also called auto brick machine) where a worm screw pushes it along a barrel into a vacuum chamber in auto brick machine, which compresses it through a taper and out through a die.

The die is machined to a precise size and shape larger than the finished size of the brick calculating how much the clay will shrink during the drying and firing process.The clay emerges as a continuous brick shaped column. Initially this is smooth but it can be modified by removing a thin sliver from the top and sides using a taught wire to produce a ‘wiredrag’ effect or by placing textured rollers over the column to create a rusticated effect or even by blasting the column with sand.

After auto brick machine,the clay column is then cut into single bricks and palletised ready for the dryers or in some factories, are loaded directly onto kiln cars.

Extruded bricks are generally perforated and can be solid but cannot be frogged.

Auto Brick machine makes bricks by mud moulding

This covers a number of processes where bricks are formed in mould boxes. There are several methods but all have a common theme. Soft clay
is thrown into a mould, a mould release medium prevents the clay from sticking to the box (sand,oil or water).

The excess clay is stuck off from the top of the mould and the bricks are turned out. In its most simple form this is done by hand by a craftsman who would produce one brick at a time.Compared with auto brick machine process,this is labour intensive, slow and expensive usually only used now for making special shapes or decorative bricks.

For standard bricks, large auto brick machine can replicate the hand-making process much quicker by using banks of mould boxes continually
on a circuit where the boxes are washed, sanded, filled with pre sanded clots of clay, struck off level and the formed brick turned out.