ABSTRACT
Commercial pressure to adopt machine-intensiveness in current labour-intensive processes is all very well and good but the main deciding factor is bespokedness. The advantages of the pallet machine process are manifold. The mixer plant, the machine and the curing facility, can all be contained within a relatively small factory and all under cover. The machine hydraulically lowers itself onto the concrete base and remains stationary while the multiple mould is filled and the blocks are made. In the first type of process a number of augers in the machine under the feed box push the concrete through a rectangular die of the dimensions and geometry of the product cross-section. The concrete is compacted within the space between the augers and the die and within this space is contained the prestressing wires/strands. A similar process is used in the aggregate auger machine, the only difference being that both concrete and loose aggregate in the void shape are extruded together.
