METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR MANUFACTURING COMPRESSED EARTHEN BLOCKS

摘要

A machine (10) and method for producing dimensionally consistent compressed earthen blocks (16). The approximately rectangular shaped block (16) is formed in a rectangular parallelepidped shaped chamber (12) having given dimensions. A plate (22) forms one wall of this chamber and has the mobility required to compress the earth (14), delivered by a row material hopper (52) and a feed box (54), within the chamber (12) against a cover plate (26). At the termination of compression, a dog (32) is forced into the compressed earthen block (16) after the compression plate reaches a predetermined location which effectively reduces the internal volume of the chamber (12).When a block (16) is formed of less material (14), the terminal point for the dog (32) will be further into the block (16) than when the same-size block (16) is made of more material (14). Additional aspects include a calibration unit for determining a volume of raw material (14) to load into the compression chamber (12) and a hydraulic cylinder (30) able to actuate two coaxial rams independently.