man with hands on hips
Wire-cut bricks are pieces of fire-fired or seasoned clay that have been molded into a brick shape with the aid of some type of wire cutter. The simplest cutters are little more than strands of wire that people press into large mounds of clay to break it up into smaller pieces. However, there are usually a number of options, including wire “cages” and cheese-cutter-type grids that can be pressed into wet clay to form it before it has a chance to harden. Discounting bricks made and shaped entirely by hand, wire cutting is one of the two main means of brick making. It is very efficient and, when done correctly, will produce uniformly sized bricks; However, depending on the clay used, bricks made in this way tend to be more porous and weaker than those made by pressing the clay into molds or shapes. They also often have a very noticeable rough edge or finish, due to friction and tension as the thread is pulled across the surface. Sometimes this texture is desirable, but not always.
Basics of brick making.
There are two main methods that most manufacturers use to shape bulk bricks, namely pressing and wire cutting. The pressing method creates a brick by pressing clay material into a mold or brick form and applying pressure. This method tends to be time consuming and expensive, although it generally produces very strong bricks of uniform size and shape.
Wire-cut bricks, by contrast, are bricks formed by cutting a brick-sized piece of clay with a wire tool. After turning the clay into a large rectangular piece of material, it is cut into several brick-sized pieces by pushing wires through the clay. Cutting the clay into wire cut bricks leaves a noticeable mustache-like appearance on the cured surface of the brick. The cutting procedure creates a rough texture as the wire is pushed and forced through the material.
Types of wire tools.
Fabricators using the wire cutting method often have a few options when it comes to tools. Bricks are often formed into a large block of brick material and pushed through a die into a cutting tray. Once pushed through the sizing die, the block is cut into several brick-sized pieces by forcing a large tool, similar to a cheese cutter, through the block of material. It is also possible to use a more lively looking tool with a braided grid or large screen that is pressed into a moist mound of clay, and even simple strands of measured wire can be used to cut out individual pieces.
The process as a whole
As the wire cuts through the bricks, it pulls on the edge of the brick, stretching the clay and creating small cracks in the surface of the stretched material. As wire-cut bricks are fired, a process that heats the bricks and sets them into a permanent shape, the moisture in the clay is baked and the clay molecules are heated together and strengthened into a long-lasting building product. duration. The grains on the surface of fired brick separate into cracks and crevices. This feature is what gives brick the visual appeal that many builders and homeowners look for in a finished look.
Advantages and disadvantages
One of the biggest advantages of the wire cutting process is that it produces a much more affordable product; Bricks made this way are easier to produce, require less material, and also take much less time to create than a pressed version of brick. A typical clay block will produce six to nine bricks once cut and cured. Teams of four or five typically make bricks with a single brick making machine. Typically, two people place the clay brick into the hopper of the machine, while another person adds the appropriate amount of water to the mix. Another person pushes the material into the molding chamber and forces the brick out of the molding die and onto the cutting table, and then the bricks dry out and usually burn.
Not everyone likes the rougher look of wire bricks, and their more porous nature means they’re not necessarily suitable for all types of building projects. In circumstances requiring more strength, wire bricks can be used as a decorative outer layer to give the appearance of a brick structure but with a core made of something else.
