Production

Emmerich

Creating our bricks

The maximum
production capacity
at the Emmerich plant is
50 Mio. bricks and
60000 m² building slabs
per year.

Raw materials

Lava, sand and sawdust are used in addition
to the main raw material, clay.

These raw materials come from Germany, Holland and Belgium.

Clay store

The maximum storage capacity of the mixing heap is approx.

80.000m³

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This mixing heap plays a very important role at the Emmerich plant. The circular ring heap used here has the advantage of balancing out the natural differences in the materials from the excavation sites as well as possible, because the storage system makes it possible to arrange them in layers (planar structure). The layers stored in this way are only approx. 30 cm high and are drilled out and analysed at several places at regular intervals. Based on the results, the quantity from the approx. 5-9 individual excavation sites is still influenced during the building up of the heap. This way, the quality is already deliberately controlled in the selection of the raw materials. The percentage grain size ratio and the iron to lime ratio are of fundamental importance in this. While the grain size for the most part influences the in-house processing characteristics, the iron to lime ratio determines the later firing colour of the shard. After the heap has been completed, it is turned over with a crawler excavator, to premix the different clays and even out the moisture distribution. From here, the clay is transported with a wheel loader to preparation.

Preparation

First of all, a rolling mill is used.
The clay is reduced by pressure
between the opposing rollers.
After the rolled raw material
has been temporarily stored once
again in different box feeders and
drawn off in controlled amounts,
it goes into the circular screen feeder.

The clay is drawn in by spreading arms
and spread past the screen. As a result,
intense homogenisation is achieved,
right down to the smallest ranges of the mass particles.
The clay then goes into a single-shaft mixer.
The single-shaft mixer is designed for the
automatically controlled mixing in of water.
Single-duct, counterflow drum dryers with
drum screen are used to prepare the
mould sand required at the presses.

Shaping

At the Emmerich plant,
three different press
techniques are used,
all of which are based
on the old,
hand-moulded bricks.

That is why the description
“hand-moulded from the Lower Rhine”
has caught on and lasted
right up to the present.

Drying

The sheets bearing freshly pressed
blanks are then intermittently and automatically
brought into the dryer with a vehicle group.

The drying process itself occurs due to the
supplying of heat, during which the liquid is converted
into a vaporous state and thus separated from the solid material.

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At Emmerich, approx. one litre of water is evaporated from each stone in this way. The chamber drying used at Emmerich is characterised by the periodic loading, emptying and joint drying of the whole chamber contents, during which the goods lie still during drying while the dry air washes around them. The flows of heat and air are continually adjusted to the respective state of the drying items during the whole drying process, in keeping with the specific product and chamber, in order to be able to dry faster, in better quality and more energy-efficiently. The drying process takes approx. 3 days. If more time is available, drying is carried out even more slowly in order to save energy. 10 chamber units are available per press, permitting a virtually continuous process. The exhaust heat from the tunnel kilns is the main source of heat supply to the drying systems. When necessary, additional heating is provided by natural gas burners. The dried bricks, also called green bodies, are pushed off the sheets to the setting plant. If necessary, the sheets are temporarily stored and then returned to the press.

Setting machine

In order for
us to be able
to fire the dried
bricks in a tunnel kiln,
these have to be stacked on
so-called tunnel kiln cars..

These cars have a fireproof platform made out of fire bricks, to protect the steel frame and the axles against the high temperature. The setting machines form automatically arranged rows out of the horizontally supplied green bodies, which are added to until they form groups. A grabber is then used to place these groups on the kiln car in layers. An optimal setting pattern is used for each type of stone.

Firing process

The firing process as a final
ceramic technological procedure.

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The firing process combines the fine particles of raw materials irreversibly into a solid body by means of silicatisation and gives the finished product its water insolubility, a certain resistance against chemical influences, the necessary compressive strength of the individual formats, and the colour. Because the tunnel kilns are continually operated 7 days a week and 24 hours a day, but shaping and unloading are only carried out in one shift 5 days a week, a corresponding number of kiln cars are put in temporary storage before and after the firing process. This temporary storage and the whole firing process are computer-controlled. The kilns are fired at the sides as well as from above by natural gas burners. In this process, the combustion air is partly introduced via a regulated pressurised air system, warming up here according to the counterflow principle while the fired items cool down, and goes into the fire zone as an oxygen carrier. The combustion gases occurring here are sucked through the heating zone with additional assistance from the similarly regulated flue gas system, causing the product to be heated up. As the tunnel kiln cars are fed forward at performance-appropriate time intervals, the green bodies are continually heated and fired into facing bricks while passing through the fire zone at approx. 1.100 °C. The whole firing process takes approx. 2-3 days. The flue gas, drawn off via smoke extractor ducts, goes straight into the flue gas cleaning system, before it is discharged into the chimney at temperatures only just above the dew point. Experience shows that the most favourable thermal efficiency is achieved with these tunnel kilns, because no firing aids that would also require heating up (fire-proof mats or boxes) are necessary for the heavy clay product.

Unloading

The fired facings are fully automatically taken off two kiln cars at the same time in a stepped pattern for better pre-mixing and then run through a separation station. After this, each stone passes a sorting station. Only afterwards are the layers automatically distributed on 8 chain conveyors by a sophisticated intermediate storage system and reshaped by the individual picking out of 3 to 4 bricks. The newly formed lines are then split up onto two parallel-running belts and it is only from here that they are moved in layers onto transport pallets. This means that a very good cross-mixing is achieved across the whole kiln car, so that bricks that have been fired next to each other and look unintentionally similar in colour no longer lie next to each other in the layer and also cannot appear as “nests” of colour when they are used.

The transport radius of our products does not permit us to transport loose packages. That is why a sheet of paper is automatically placed between each layer to protect the surfaces of the bricks. The packages are finally shrink-wrapped into automatically formed film covers. A lift truck then brings the ready-to-dispatch packages to the storage yard, from which the pallets are then loaded onto HGVs. The surfaces of the kiln cars are vacuumed off after each run. This prepares the kiln car for a new cycle.

Production

Emmerich

Creating our bricks

The maximum production capacity at the Emmerich plant is50 Mio. bricks and60000 m² building slabs per year.

Clay store

At the Emmerich plant, three different press techniques are used, all of which are based on the old, hand-moulded bricks.

Drying

Setting machine

The maximum
production capacity
at the Emmerich plant is
50 Mio. bricks and
60000 m² building slabs
per year.

At the Emmerich plant,
three different press
techniques are used,
all of which are based
on the old,
hand-moulded bricks.