This was a presentation made b y me at SMIDEX 2014 at Colombo, Sri Lanka on 22nd May 2014. Mr. George Mathews .a mechanical engineering consultant from Pune, Maharashtra and Mr. K> K> Vijayan the managing partner of Vijayaprakash Industrials, Calicut, Kerala also was with me in presenting the paper in the SMIDEDX 2014.

1. Upgrading the
Technologies
is a MUSTThis presentation is made in association with M/s. Vijayaprakash Industrials, India

2. Vijayaprakash
Industrials

3. Why to Mechanise?
How to Mechanise?

4. We’ll have an open
discussion on various
aspects of modernising
brick industry in
Sri Lanka

5. Human beings go on
producing many things for
their convenient living.

6. Most of the time they
snatch away the
provisions of life of their
fellow inhabitants in
order to achieve this.

7. Hence we have to take
extra care not to loot the
nature beyond our
provisions.
Take only what you ought to

8. Technological
advancements
make this possible.

9. So upgrading the
technology we use for
producing various
commodities is a MUST.

10. It’s more so in the case of
terracotta products.
Clay once burned is
burned for ever.

11. So before you place a clay
product into the kiln make
sure that you have prepared
the clay well and used only
the right amount of clay.

12. Waste at all levels is to be
minimised

13. We searched the whole
world for arriving at
solutions to produce more
number of clay products
from the available clay and
couldn’t find a proper
solution.

14. Some assured increased
productivity with quality, but
were too energy consuming.

15. Some caused a lot of
irretrievable waste of many
resources.
Some required huge
investments.

16. We returned home.

17. We happened to see some of
our traditional potters
producing good quality clay
potteries, clay idols, manikins
and other such things from clay.

19. We watched their process ,
rather watched it with a
renewed interest

20. Their process of clay
preparation was of real
interest.
They even produce thin
clayware with bare hands.

21. Freshly hand moulded green ware in clay

22. Their basic technology of
clay preparation was unique.

23. The quality of the end
product greatly depends on
the quality of clay
preparation

24. Have you ever noticed how
these traditional potters
prepare the clay?

25. First they collect the clay
and store it in heaps. They
pound the clay well after
mixing with water.

27. Then they keep it for one or
two days as such for curing

28. After that they will slice the clay
column with a knife or blade.
While slicing it into thin wafers
they will carefully remove the
hard particles from the clay

29. The sliced clay is again
pounded and mixed with
water and sand adequately.

30. They take great care in
making it really
homogenous.

31. You may know, even thin
clayware made centuries
ago are still available
without any damage.

32. From some places earthenware
are excavated out while digging
for agricultural or construction
purposes

33. So we thought a little deep
about this clay preparation
method; introduced a way to
follow the same method using
machines.

34. Box Feeder is designed
to mix all clay, proportionate
it well and make sure the flow
of clay to ensuing machines is
even, that means no overload
no under load.

36. Box Feeder

37. Our high speed fine grinding
rollers further mixes it and
grinds the hard particles which
make the water penetration
easier

38. High Speed Fine Grinding Roller

40. VPI Twin Barrel Clay Mixer

42. Clay mixer has two chambers. The
open chamber has beater shaped
paddles which expands the clay and
in the closed chamber, augers
compresses the clay.

43. Clay mixer is fitted with
slicers at its mouth which
slices the clay into finer
flakes and renders it really
manageable.

44. Pan mill helps you to crush the
large lumps of clay, which ensures
better mixing.

45. Comparing the two process

46. Panmill Grinds the Hard
particles

47. VPI Panmill

48. Panmill pushes the clay
down in noodle form

50. So waste is utilised well in
this processing method

51. We have gone one more
step ahead

52. Our De-airing Pug Mill
removes the air column
caught inside the clay and
pugs it well.

53. This stage in the processing
increases the elasticity of
the clay to very great extent

55. So the clay is ground, mixed, watered,
cured, and in the final stage using an
extruder you can extrude
out any product with high
quality standards

56. Extrude any product

57. Made truly elastic
Soft Mud Extrusion with De-airing Pugmill

58. A few more steps Forward!
Some additional Mechanisation
suggestions for additional quality
and productivity

59. Loading

60. Pre-crushing and Curing

61. Bucket Excavator

62. Wire-cutting

64. We have seen some
buildings here in Sri Lanka

68. Look at the walls of these
buildings

74. Powder Process/Dry Process

75. This is not just an upgradation of
technology, but it’s a bare essential
processing modification every clay
industry has to adopt

76. It’s our responsibility
towards our coming
generations;
it’s a MUST.

77. Vijayaprakash Industrials,
India, can provide you the required
technical help to upgrade yourself
to produce the most resource
efficient bricks and other clayware

78. Bricks, Hollow bricks, wall
facing tiles, roofing tiles,
paver blocks etc.

79. A Truly wide range of Products

80. You can now produce more number
of clay products with improved
quality using lesser amounts of raw
materials, energy and other
resources

81. Upgrade the technology. It’s
the need of the hour, rather
a responsibility of every
entrepreneur.
it’s a MUST.

82. THANK YOUhttp://www.vijayaprakashindustrials.com/
http://resourceefficientbricks.blogspot.in/
babuappat@gmail.com