Bricks have been used for thousands of years and can be made by hand or with machines. They are durable and come in various colors and sizes. Some regions still use traditional methods, while others use illegal labor to produce cheap bricks.
Brick has been a popular building material for thousands of years, as extensive historic structures can attest. Several methods can be used to make bricks. As a general rule, the brick-making process involves quarrying the clay, mixing the clay with sand, creating bricks, and firing the bricks so they harden. Once fired, the bricks are extremely durable and can come in a variety of colors and sizes, depending on where they are made. Many people associate bricks with the color red, but they can also be yellow, almost white, or cream, depending on the ingredients used.
Historically, brick making was done by hand, with the clay and sand mixture packed into moulds, allowed to dry, and then fired. Molding is still a technique used in brick making today, except that it is done with the use of large steel molds in which the raw materials are hydraulically packed to obtain a very dense and evenly textured brick. These molds are often installed on a roller conveyor that moves the bricks through a kiln for firing as they are made.
Another option is extrusion. With extrusion, pressurized materials are passed through a machine that shapes the materials into long strips which are cut into bricks. The bricks are in turn left to dry and then fired. With both methods, you can print the brick with various designs if desired. Some companies print their bricks with information about where they are made, while others may add decorative designs to their bricks.
Adobe brick, a building product still used in some regions of the world, is sometimes still handcrafted in the traditional way. Small rural communities in regions such as Africa can make their own bricks for construction with locally available materials. Adobe and the closely related mud brick are made without firing, and the entire process can take weeks, as the bricks may take some time to harden. While curing, the bricks can be printed with designs and decorative elements can also be inserted into the brick.
Bricks are still shaped by hand for commercial sale in regions of the world where labor is cheap and readily available. Advocates for people living in slavery and working children under the legal working age have exposed a number of brick-making operations in nations such as Pakistan that use illegal labor techniques to produce extremely cheap bricks for sale. In these regions, using illegal labor to produce bricks is cheaper than purchasing machinery for mass brick production.
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