Assignment for Unit 1- introduction to bricks and clay products.
The aim was to understand the process of the manufacture of bricks, to know the nature of different bricks and to know and understand the various sizes for Closers, Bats and quoins and their application. This is done by making the students to prepare the bricks with Cement, Clay, Sand, Red oxide, water and Adhesives to give the same property and nature. This was done in the scale of 1:5 sizes for the better and easy handling of bricks to the beginners. As a next part of the same activity we are intending to arrange a program that involves the student to lay the bricks in different bonding patterns.
Process:
- The students were taught about the constituents used for the manufacture of bricks and their quantities. To be clear with the nature of a brick it is very important to know the process involved in its manufacturing.
Students were introduced to the process of Brick making
- We also introduced to the students necessary the equipment for brick manufacture and the finishes or the quality we get as output. (First Class Brick, Second Class Brick and Third Class Brick)
- Then the students were taught the sizes of the bricks available in the market and their role in the field of application. The sizes include the sizes of :-
- Full brick
- Queen closer
- Quarter queen closer
- Half bat, ¾ bat
- King closer etc
- The students arranged foam boards to make the moulds and frogs. Used oil to ease the friction.
Moulds with the mixture
Various sizes of bricks made by students
- Then they used different ratios for different constituents to see the strengths at different setting time. They decided which could be ordered first class, second class and third class bricks based on the strength and nature. They also got to understand better the importance of Bats and Closers when they saw them demonstrated on the desk.
Students working with moulds to make bricks
In overall, from the faculty side we were able to see a great interest among the students to work hands on and the level of understandings was beyond a student’s level.