What raw materials are used to make bricks

Brick making machine is a mechanical equipment that produces building bricks through a specific process, the raw material can be used cement, concrete, aggregate, and many other options.

The main raw material of traditional clay brick machine

• Clay: The core raw material that provides plasticity and forms the brick structure.
• Natural clay minerals, including kaolin and shale, are weathered, crushed and screened to remove impurities.
• Sand: used to adjust the drying shrinkage of clay and enhance the strength, the ideal sand content is 30%-35%.
• Lime: as a flux to reduce shrinkage during sintering
• Quartz sand: improves the durability and weathering resistance of brickwork

Materials for modern industrial brick-making machines

• Fly ash: replaces clay, reduces energy consumption, commonly used in fly ash bricks
• Rice husk ash: as fuel and additive to reduce sintering temperature requirements
• Cinder, steel slag: industrial waste, used as a substitute for clay or as an aggregate
• Shale/gangue: hard raw material, directly used in sintered brick production

Raw materials for cement brick making machine

• Cement: used as a binder to enhance the strength of bricks, commonly used in cement bricks
• Aggregates: e.g., stone chips, sand and gravel powder, used to regulate volume and density
• Gypsum: improves the hardening rate and dimensional stability of the brick body

Raw materials for ecological/alternative material bricks

• Plastic: used to make eco-bricks, molded by melting at high temperatures
• Agricultural waste: e.g. rice husks, stalks, wood chips, as filler or fuel
• Red clay: improved brickwork properties in low clay content soils

Raw materials for special customized tiles

• Hollow bricks: need to increase the hollowness, usually molded by mixing cement, gravel, sand
• Interlocking Bricks: Relying on Mold Design for Complex Structures
• Soil curing bricks: use of compressed stabilized earth (SEB) with controlled water content and impurities

While traditional bricks are based on clay, sand and lime, modern processes widely use alternative materials such as fly ash, industrial wastes and cement. Eco-bricks and special function bricks (e.g. hollow, interlocking turn, heat insulation) will introduce raw materials such as plastics, rice husk ash and fibers. The selection of raw materials needs to take into account the cost, environmental protection and performance requirements of the brick body, while improving the quality and yield of bricks through the optimization of ratios and additives, and implementing large-scale production.