Design and implementation of an automated block-making machine

Abstract

This project addresses the problem of a significant shortage of housing in urban areas of Ghana, with only 35% of the demand for housing being met. One of the essential elements in construction is brick or concrete block, but the traditional manual method of producing blocks limits quantity and quality. The aim of this project is to design and construct an automated low-cost block making machine to meet the demands of small-scale and local block making industries in Ghana. The machine would provide cheaper and readily accessible building blocks, lowering the cost of construction. CAD software (Solidworks) was used for performing static, fatigue, and vibrational analysis for the key components in the machine. SkyCIV software was used for plotting free body diagrams, shear force diagrams, and bending moments diagrams. CES software was used for material selection for the system. EasyEDA and Lucidchart were used for the circuit design and the flow diagrams respectively. The weight measurements indicated that the average block weight is 4.36 kg, which indicates uniformity of the total block samples produced. The water absorption rate for the block produced was 2.27%, indicating the block meets the required standard of not having a water absorption rate of more than 10% as specified by the Ghana Standard Authority. The cost of the machine was calculated to be GHC 6599.50, which is far cheaper than some existing machines available in the market, which range between GH12000.00 to 16,500.00. The system demonstrated a high production rate with our machine, producing 618 blocks in 8 working hours with a manual means of conveying, compared to the 240 blocks that can be produced in the same period with a hand-tamping block making machine. In all, the results of this project show that the automated low-cost block making machine can produce uniform and well-compacted blocks with high compressive strength, meeting the required standards of water absorption rate and weight.

Description

Capstone Project submitted to the Department of Engineering, Ashesi University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the award of Bachelor of Science degrees in Mechanical Engineering and Electrical and Electronic Engineering, May 2023

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