MEKELLE UNIVERSITY

ETHIOPIAN INSTITUTE OF
TECHNOLOGY-MEKELLE

DEPARTMENT OF MECHANICAL
ENGINEERING
BY DAHLAK H.
FINAL YEAR
PROJECT WORK
ZELEALEM
B. ON
DESIGN OF HCB
MAKING MACHINE
OUT LINES
 Introduction
Design of hollow block making machine

This report presents a systematic approach to

enhance the current design of hollow concrete
block making machine.
The design starts with data gathering from the
literature review and information given by the
HBMM.
The weaknesses of the current design are being
analyzed by looking at the filed work, done by the
machine operator
and the machine limitation is being identified.
 Objectives
The main objective of this project is to design a
new block making machine with
new features and simplifying the machine for
one man operation in order to reduce
operational cost and
maximize the production rate.
Furthermore, the purpose of this is to design
HBMM suitable for entrepreneurs.
General objectives

The main objective of this project is to design

a new blocks making machine with new
features and technology, and taking the
machine for one man operation in order
to reduce operational cost and maximize the
production rate.
 Specific objectives

To bring building construction of low cost.

To achieve superior finishes and compatible
for almost all types of construction.
To have on site production to reduce
transportation cost and to minimize ecological
imbalance caused due to burnt blocks.
Generally our aims are higher strength and
technical superiority over conventional
methods of HBMM system.
 problem statement
Nowadays providing house to our community with
affordable price is a major task being carried out by our
government and real state organizations.

Hollow blocks are an important input for the

construction of those low cost houses, but the currently
in use HB construction materials are taking longer time
to manufacture and shortage in fulfilling the demand in
construction, which makes
-The selling price expensive and
-Unaffordable for the medium income
society.
Hollow concrete block making machine
(HCBMM)
The machines used to produce HCB are
automatic machines which have hydraulic
cylinder, motor that drives the pump, that the
power of the piston is enough to compact the
concrete sufficiently in the molds and to
achieve the required strength.
 Hollow block Specification

The hollow blocks are different from other

normal blocks as it requires no mortar or cement
for masonry work.
The most common size of block is 300x150x120mm.
The basic raw material is cement, fine aggregate
and coarse aggregate. Very little water is used.
Weight of this block is about 2 - 3 Kg.
 Types of concrete block

According to production
Hollow concrete block
Solid concrete block
According to its size
100mm
150mm
200mm
 Scope of project

this project is done based on the scope below;

this Project will focus on design of HCBM machine

only that is Fabrication of machine is excluded in this
project.
Designing the HCBM machine, that fulfill the
project objective.
Machine design to suit the regular hollow concrete
blocks.
The project goes until detail design of hollow
concrete block making machine.
The scope of work can be described in terms of
flowchart as per the following Figure 1.
 figure 1. flow chart to represent scope of work

Literature Review on hollow concrete

block Making Machine

Machine Specification

Conceptual Design Progress work one

Selection of Best Concept

Detail Design for Selected Concept

Materials Selection &part analysis

Machine Simulation
Progress work two
Detail &assembly drawing(CATIA)
 METHODOLOGY
methods for completing product development
activities.
The applied methods, provide a step-by-step
approach to complete the task of this project. Based
on these methodologies, there are three advantages
expected.
Firstly, the decision processes is completely made,
Secondly, by acting as check list of the key steps in
a development activity and ensure that the important
issues are not forgotten.
Third, these structured methods are largely self-
documenting; in the process of executing the
method, the record of the decision-making process
can be used for future reference. Figure 3.1 show the
flow chart for completing this project.
 Concept Development Phase Identifying customer
needs
Question/ Customer Statement Interpretation
Prompt

Director Increase production rate from 700 Increase productivity

block per day to 6,000 block per day One man operation
(in double shift) Low machine cost
Reduce manpower

Engineer It all automatic, only by single touch! Simple operation.

No waiting time. Non-stop machining
Minimum 4 mold cavities per cycle
compaction Minimum 4 mold
Uniform pressure distribution system cavity
No messy maintenance. High compaction
rigidity Machine with
complete system
Easy maintenance
Labor I don't like to press the compactor Fool proof operation
several times just to make sure the Automated operation
block meet it
dimension.

Marketable machine
Suggested Nice rigid machine and marketable. Effective alert system.
Improvement An alert system and a safety feature.
 Establishing target specifications
High production rate
Minimum 4 blocks per cycle
One man operation
Simple operation process
Complete with automatic arrangement block system
Complete with concrete charging system
Equipped with cooling system
Infallible operation
Automated function
Uniform pressure distribution
Easy accessed for maintenance
Complete with alarm system
Safe to handle
Low cost machine
 Problem Identification
Current machine design unable to increase
product this is mainly due to;
i. Time wasting by doing the cement
charging/loading and leveling the cement. (Time
required: 50 seconds). See figure
ii. Manually obtaining the lower mold plate as operator
needs the device to turn the block (Time required:
45 seconds). See figure
iii. The load applied several time on the hollow
block (Time required: 15 seconds). See figure
iv. The mold lower plates are manually inserted
one by one (Time required: 45 seconds).
 concept generated
After identifying the weaknesses of the current
design, literature review is used to get the basic
idea of the existing solution concepts.
The propose concepts are then generated
according to the problem solution and
establishment of customer needs and specification.
So, the challenge is to design a hollow block
making machine that fulfilling the target product
specification.
Concept generation

Fig 1 concept 1
Fig 2 concept 2
Fig 3 of concept 3
 Concept selection
criteria's for selecting concepts.

High production rate .

Minimum 3 blocks per cycle .
One man operation .
Simple operation.
Comes with auto arrange block system.
Comes with minimum material west.
Comes with Automated function
Uniform pressure distribution
Can be easily access for maintenance
Safe to handle
Low cost machine
Easy for manufacturing
 Discussions
In concept selection, the concepts being
evaluated with respect to customer needs and other
criteria, comparing the relative strengths and
weakness of the concepts.
The current machine design used has been chosen
to become reference concept.
Finally, the concepts are weighted relative to
the importance of the selection criteria and focuses
on more comparisons with respect to each criterion
are determined.
So, Concept 1 is selected as it obtain higher
score compare to the concept 2.
Final product specification then being refine
according to the chosen concept before
developing the detail design of the HBM
machine with cylinder system.
 Expected results
The high aesthetic value, faster, thermally
efficient, structurally durable, eco-friendly, and
low cost block will be identified for the
production of low cost house in the country.
 It Is to design machine that can produce
Four block with
L=400mm, W=200mm, t=20mm
Five block with
L=400mm, W=150mm, t=20mm
Sixe block with
L=400mm, W=100mm, t=20mm
 The analysis done on this project

Motor selection
Bearing selection
Design of welded joint
Mold base design
Design of spring
Design support frame
Charging System
Top Structure
Design of bolt
 Select and design the circuit of double acting cylinder
Compactor
Components Analysis
Cost Analysis
Over all 3D drawing using catia software
Compactor
Mould filling system
The over all working mechanism of the
machine
 CONCLUSION
In reflecting on this project all objectives were
successfully met.
able to ensure that the block productivity increase
compare to the current machine design.
this machine can be upgraded to more user friendly
by adding the features such as automatic
concrete loading into a machine container and
also the attachment of conveyer for transferring
the compacted blocks directly on the machine
itself.
 with deep gratitude
we would like to

thank you all !!!!!!!!