How It's Made Bricks

most three little pigs knew what they were doing when they built that brick house not only our bricks wolf proof they're also fireproof pest resistant and weather resistant no wonder they're one of the world's oldest building materials bricks are often made of shale a lightweight rock that splits easily into thin layers quarry machines dig 40 centimeters down to expose the shale to the elements for two years this weakens it making it easier to process once it gets to the factory a four foot high stone wheel with a steel tire grinds the shale into powder it grinds up 50 tons of shale per hour a screen sifts out any pieces that need more grinding the powder goes to the pug mill which mixes it with water this makes a thick paste that will next go through the extrusion machine the extruder forces the paste through a rectangular opening to form one long continuous piece called a slug at the same time it shaves off the crustier top layer to expose what will become the face of the brick if this gray shale mixture is fired as is it'll naturally produce a red brick to engineer a different color they coat the slug in sand mixed with an oxide minerals such as zinc or iron next they texture the surface with a textured roller this is just one of many popular designs then a large knife comes down like a guillotine and slices the slug into five foot lengths you might be wondering where those three holes came from well remember how the paste goes through the extruder to form the slug inside are three pins they make three holes designed to decrease the bricks weight out of each five foot length they cut 23 inch bricks the ones on the ends are uneven so they go back into the mix to make new slugs next comes the delicate job of stacking these newly minted bricks to be a machine first separates them then using inflating bags it grasps them raises them then stacks them meanwhile the water in the bricks is starting to evaporate to hasten that process the bricks go into a dryer for two days the dryer gets it's hot air from the heat generated by the killin where the bricks go next for firing the killin is really a giant oven it fires the brick set 1040 degrees Celsius that's almost 2,000 degrees Fahrenheit one and a half days later the bricks are ready the transfer machine takes them out of the killin but before they go to market a technician does a quality check he weighs and measures a sample to see if it meets the design specifications bricks are supposed to absorb some water but not too much yet if they repel water completely they'll also repel the wet mortar the Masons use to stick the bricks together so to test absorbency the technician breaks a brick in half he weighs it before and after soaking it in water for 24 hours by comparing the weights he can see how much water the brick has absorbed once the batch gets the okay they stack the bricks into cubes of five to six-hundred each brick weighs five and a half pounds so each cube weighs in at about a quarter ton brick is one of the sturdiest building materials around it doesn't rot fade warper dense the way some other materials can bricks are also energy efficient they absorb heat to help cool your house in the summer and hold heat to help keep it warmer in the winter

Channel: Ian Collier

Views: 1,792,237

Rating: 4.6584129 out of 5

Keywords: Bricks

Id: SbKvhHzn4hQ

Length: 4min 45sec (285 seconds)

Published: Mon Oct 05 2009

Reddit Comments

[u/PM_ME_UR_KNITS]

Her pronunciation is 'killen' me.

[u/FangedFreak]

I love How It's Made. It was the only TV program that could make a living room full of students fall silent and watch in awe