Plant Redesign for Production of Soil- Cement Blocks

Abstract

Sudan as one of the underdeveloped countries is in need of development and rehabilitation in the field of buildings. Nowadays building materials are one of the problems of buildings in Sudan for its scarce and high price. Also using of burning wood in fired –brick manufacturing process affect the environment and future energy. This research is designed to study the technical and economical benefits to produce alternative for the existing material (fired -bricks), and also to redesign and manufacture a complete production line consists of a vibrator mixer and hydraulic press to produce soil-cement blocks which contain soil and percentage of cement and water in high quality and productivity level .An available machines were redesigned, and soil samples were taken from omdurman and Khartoum North. The produced blocks were tested in the laboratories of the institute of technical research for water absorption and in the laboratory of highway researches-university of Khartoum for compressive strength, An evaluation for the operation of the redesigned machines and economical study showed that the produced soil-cement blocks are of higher quality and lower cost than the available fired-bricks.