University of Khartoum

Faculty of engineering

Master of engineering management

MEM 5

Plant Visit

University of Khartoum

Red brick factory

Prepared by :
Wesam Hassan Abdalla Mohamed

Red brick factory

Company profile & history :
University of Khartoum automatic red brick factory which it was a
gift from Yugoslavia to Sudan , especially for university of Khartoum the
Institute of Building and Roads research of for research purpose to develop
the automatic red brick industry in Sudan .The factory operation Star in the
late 1980s and early 1990s .

Location :
In soba , Khartoum , Sudan .

Plant layout :
Plant layout shape look like L shape

Production process :
it consists of four phases :

1- Drilling(stone-pit)
2- production phase
3- Drying
4- Burning ( kiln)

1- Drilling(stone-pit)

Where we can found raw material near river Nile natural clay minerals
make up the main body of brick. Where the drilling is to extract the raw
materials and then it mixed with water and other materials that can help in
fermentation process.

Harmonious mixture leaves for several days until the fermentation

process is complete and ready for production .

2- Production phase

Start the process phase from box feeder where it is fermented mixture
collected , the box feeder look like convert built Where you can control the
quantity of mud flow in the production line and add some water if it need .

Then enter the mixer to ensure the coherence of the mud and the lack of
clusters , Then move through the rubber convert to rough differential milt
composed of the wheels to pass mud through it from which to ensure it
uniformity .

Rubber convert
 After the mud is ready the formation process start with vacuum chamber
where it the expulsion the air inside the mud until it becomes a coherent .

In the exit of chamber there is template to form the bricks and then goes
to cutter machine to be cut according to the required size (230 × 110× 60
mm) .

3- Drying :
The drying rooms for up to 11,000 brick , There are two ways for drying :
1- Natural draying :
Use natural air for drying bricks , this drying process takes about 10 -13
days.
2- Artificial draying :
Use the exhaust from kiln , this drying process takes about 4 days .

4- Burning ( kiln):

This type of kiln called tunnel kiln , the burner is fix and the bricks is
movable .

The kiln consists of :

- the tunnels : where the brick will placed inside .

- exhaust fans : found on the celling of kiln to draw the smoke out to
the chimney .
- Burners : You can control the flam through the fuel valves , where
they use HFO or furnace fuel .
- Chimney : a vertical channel or pipe which conducts smoke and
combustion gases up from a kiln .
 Burning the bricks takes about 8 days in the kiln where it pass through
four level of heat :

- preheat
- heat
- full firing
- precooling
- cooling .

Bricks inside the kiln

Waste Management:
There is waste in several stages of process and the factory have
recycling technique to use the waste as raw material , where they use about
20% of overburdened bricks and green bricks as raw material after crash it
and max it with clay .

Product Storage and Packaging:

There is no place to store the Bricks after burned and they placed in
the courtyard of the factory until they transferred to the local market and
sold.
Innovation :
1- The factory is semi-automatic most stages are manual like
Drilling(stone-pit) they use loader to do this job also when the
production stage is finish the worker transfer the green bricks
manually to dryer then to kiln and eventually to courtyard of the
factory to store it . the factory need to be fully automatic to be more
productive .
2- The HFO or furnace fuel it is expensive compered it with coal
(Petroleum coke) it is cheaper and good for environment but it need to
change the kiln system .