Concrete Block Production

Aggregate Dosing and Concrete Mixing Plant

Quality from the very beginning - that is our philosophy. The use of comprehensive and effective dosing systems guarantee optimum and efficient delivery of raw inputs (for example, sand, cement, water, additives) to cement mixers.

Using the tried and tested Masa concrete mixers results in reliable and high-quality mixing. Both the stationary mixers series "PH" as well as the Masa mixer "S 350/500" demonstrate highly desirable results with short mixing times and optimal material and energy inputs. Easy maintenance and durability makes this Masa concrete mixer a worthwhile long term investment.

Another important part of the manufacturing process is the individual color design of paving stones or other concrete stones. It can be achieved in both simple and complex multi-color systems for main and face concrete.

Concrete transport systems

Depending on the system layout, the Masa concrete mixers are positioned directly over the concrete block machine or outside the plant. The transport of the concrete from the outside concrete mixing plant to block machine is most frequently by use of a bucket conveyor system although other systems can be utilized. According to customer requirements different bucket conveyer variations are available.

Concrete Block Making Machine

The heart of every concrete block making plant is undoubtedly the concrete block making machine. With the right choice you can score on the market in the long run. The Masa product range includes powerful economy and standard models as well as comfortable premium models in the section "vibration machines".

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Here all Masa models impress with a robust construction and the use of high quality materials. Masa combines decades of experience with constant development - an unbeatable combination!

Offered especially for the production of concrete curbstones for "British Standard" with a purely hydraulic compression system, Masa also offers concrete curb presses .

Wet side transport

The Masa wet side transport ensures that the freshly-produced products are conveyed gently and without loss of quality from the block making machine to the elevator. At the same time Masa does not lose sight of the importance of quality control.

As proven standard solution, Masa offers a walking beam conveyer with servo drive, providing a low-vibration transport of fresh products. However, Masa can also supply alternative transport systems.

Ahead of the actual conveying path is the lowering rocker which can also be used for doubling of production pallets. In the high speed S-package the lowering rocker is combined with a V-belt conveyor. It is synchronized with the production pallet feed of the block making machine.

Optionally further components can be installed on the wet side, for example:

• cleaning brush
• structure brush
• washing unit
• tilting device/push off device
• finishing and coating systems on request
• quality assurance systems

Elevator

The transportation of fresh products into the curing area and the subsequent removal and transfer of the cured products require an intelligent integration of various system components.

The Masa elevator collects production pallets with fresh products. Production pallets are cyclically transported upwards.

Once the elevator has reached a defined limit, production pallets are picked up by finger car and transported to one of the curing chambers.

Finger car

The finger car itself consists of a track-bound undercarriage (with or without turning device available, depending on plant layout) and an upper structure. After the finger car has accurately positioned in front of the curing chamber, low-vibration transfer into the curing chamber takes place. The stocking process of the products into the curing chamber takes place on a user prescribed basis.

After curing, the production pallets are again taken up by the finger car and either transported first to the intermediate finger car (optional) or directly to the lowerator.

Curing chamber and ventilation

To cure the products Masa offers an innovative open-plan concept: The complete curing chamber as well as elevator, finger car and lowerator will be installed in a coherent climate area. The Masa ventilation system can optimize the curing process by creating uniform climate conditions in the curing chamber.

It consists of horizontally arranged air-circulating fans in a separate air shaft, vertically arranged exhaust fans and diagonally arranged humidity and temperature sensors. By means of the sensors the circulated air is monitored, the circulating air and exhaust air fans are controlled accordingly.

Goals of regulation of the temperature and humidity in the curing chamber are the avoidance of color differences for uniform products, the realization of a faster curing and ultimately a more effective use of cement and color.

Intermediate finger car

The Masa intermediate finger car precedes the lowerator, serves as a intermediate buffer and prevents waiting times of the finger car. It is one of the components utilized with the simultaneous use of a production pallet buffer in the cross transport area.

Lowerator

The Masa lowerator is structural identical to the elevator, but unstacks the production pallets in a downward fashion and passes it to the return transport.

Masa offers lifting / lowering devices, intermediate finger car and finger car for different plant layouts. Carrying capacity, numbers of floors and floor height are each suitably dimensioned. The entire process is fully automatic.

Return transport

In the area of the return transport Masa uses completely electronically controlled drive systems.

The return transport is implemented as a servo-controlled walking beam conveyer. However, other transport systems are offered as well. Production pallets with the cured products are transported from lowerator to the cuber or alternatively to the remodeling.

After taking off the products by the cubing device, the return transport also conveys the empty production pallets to the cross transport / production pallet buffer.

Optionally on the dry side also further components can be installed, for example:

• push together device for production pallets
• centering device and block doubler
• cleaning scrapers or cleaning brush depending on the production pallet type
• packaging systems for individual layers

Centering device

Masa centering device is one of many components for realizing an optimum product handling. The cured products are loosed from the production pallet and centered. The centering is performed by a four-sided centering clamp both transversely to the transport direction and in the direction of transport.

Depending on the plant layout, the doubling of the product layers is required. This can be realized by means of the Masa doubler. The doubler is acting as the centering device, but equipped with a lifting device. The products are loosened and centered, the layers are doubled. Optionally, a horizontal turning device can be offered to rotate the product layers individually.

Both the centering and the doubler drives are servo-controlled.

Production pallets - cross transport and buffer

After removal and cubing of finished products by the Cuboter the empty production pallets are fed back into the production cycle. In order to enable two-sided use, production pallets are turned.

Depending on the plant layout either the transport pallets are transported continuously to the production pallet magazine of the concrete block making machine, or it follows the buffering or storage of the production pallets.

The balancing of different cycle times on the fresh and dry sides as well as the pure storage option of production pallets play a decisive role in the selection of production pallet storage systems.

Masa offers different buffer systems, which for example, compensates (short) interruptions and guarantees a smooth production process by the concrete block machine.

Cubing

A high-quality concrete block requires sensitive handling. For this application Masa offers fully servo controlled cubing systems: By means of the "Cuboter" Masa delivers the technology and expertise to make the final product ready for shipment.

By means of the Cuboter it is possible to take a complete block layer from the return transport or from other take off positions and assemble it on the subsequent cube transport to a stone cube. Transport pallets and packing systems can be used individually.

Cube conveyor

After the cubing follows the cube transport: Masa generally uses a robust double chain conveyor for the transport of the finished stone cubes to the take-off position or to feed packing systems which can be used with or without transport pallets. With the use of special profiles (U-profiles) an automatic vertical strapping without transport pallets is possible.

More individual solutions are of course possible, just contact us!

Masa can integrate various packing systems in the field of cube transport, which protect the finished products safely and reliably. For later identification, the products can be identified through labeling systems .

Surface treatment

Due to the increased demand of individual concrete products, manufacturers are focusing more and more on surface finishing options. Special color accents, but also the design of optics and surfaces are becoming increasingly important.

Masa supplies components for popular finishing techniques such as washing or splitting . Aging or shot blasting or other surface treatment equipment can be inserted into the process or used individually.

Remodeling

Due to different board sizes and stone layers within the manufacturing plants it is sometimes necessary, to increase or decrease the block layers in process direction. Therefore Masa offers several ways to prepare the concrete blocks according to customer requirements suitable for transport.

For example, a Masa shifter (in similar design as the Masa Cuboter ) is one method and pushing and separation tables are another example. Special versions are available on request. We will be happy to advise you.

Powertainer

The Masa Powertainer has it all: from the beginning the control cabinets are pre-installed on the right place. This protected and clean location offers optimal conditions for these components. In addition, a simple climate control is possible. The cable management system in the Powertainer ensures a EMC-suitable cabling and reduces malfunction. By possible occurences of malfunction, faults within the Powertainer can be detected much more easily.

For the customer, a further advantage is clearly obvious: Masa delivers the tried and tested concept of the closed electrical operating room too!

Masa even goes a step further with the development of the "container concept..."

Control system and safety devices

Masa's production systems are characterized by a high degree of automation resulting with a correspondingly high operatonal efficiency. In addition to the robust design of components, a customer-oriented operating concept is a key success factor in customer utilization of the Masa system.

The Masa plant control software (Masa FAST Factory Automation Service Tools) is a modular software for uniform operation and visualization of the components. The key feature is that the plant is controlled through a single software resulting in an integrated, singular data concept across the entire plant operation.

The integrated operator guidance is based on well-known operating systems. The freely programmable visualization and scalable software can be adapted by Masa to individual customer requirements. The software is expandable to customer requirements. Learn more!

Plant specific and practical oriented safety concepts are developed by a multi-discipline team of experienced Masa employees. More details...