A Brickworks also known as a brick factory, is a factory for the manufacturing of bricks, from clay or shale. Brickwork Masonry is produced when a Bricklayer uses Bricks and mortar to build up structures such as Walls Bridges and Clay is a naturally occurring material composed primarily of fine-grained Minerals which show plasticity through a variable range of Water content, and Shale (also called mudstone) is a fine-grained Sedimentary rock whose original constituents were Clay minerals or Muds It is characterized by Usually a brickworks is located on a clay bedrock (the most common material from which bricks are made) often with a quarry for clay on site. Bedrock is the native consolidated rock underlying the surface of a terrestrial planet usually the Earth.

Equipment

Most brickworks have some or all of the following:

• A kiln, for firing, or 'burning' the bricks. Kilns are thermally insulated chambers or Ovens in which controlled temperature regimes are produced
• Drying yard or shed, for drying bricks before firing.
• A building or buildings for manufacturing the bricks.
• A quarry for clay.
• A pugmill or clay preparation plant (see below)

Brick making

In a typical modern brickworks, clay is taken from the quarry, and then carried by conveyor belt or lorry to the main factory, (although it may be stockpiled outside before entering the machinery) When the clay enters the preparation plant (Clay Prep) it is crushed, and mixed with water and other additives which may include breeze (very fine anthracite which aids firing) This process, which is also known as pugmilling, improves the consistency, firing qualities, texture, and colour of the brick. A belt conveyor consists of two or more Pulleys with a continuous loop of material - the conveyor belt - that rotates about them

From here, the processed clay can be extruded into a continuous strip and cut with wires, or put into moulds or presses (also referred to as forming)to form the clay into its final shape.

After the forming or cutting, the bricks must be dried, either in the open air, in drying sheds, or in special drying kilns.

When the bricks have been dried, they must then be fired or 'burnt' in a kiln, to give them their final hardness and appearance.

Historical notes

In the past, clay was often transported from the quarry to the brickworks by narrow gauge railway or aerial ropeway. A narrow gauge railway (or narrow gauge railroad) is a Railway that has a Track gauge narrower than the of Standard gauge railways A ropeway conveyor is essentially a subtype of Gondola lift, from which containers for Goods rather than passenger cars are suspended

See also

• brick
• brickwork
• Masonry
• factories