Cleia

Argibordj – a modern plant for producing high-quality bricks and insulation blocks

Cleia

»1 Argibordj – General view of the plant

Cleia

»2 Loading system for the Zephyr dryer

»3 Entrance to the Zephyr dryer, one of the widest in the world without intermediate supports

»4 The Technofast kiln is around 200 m long and 8 m wide

»5 Unloading by robots

»6 Wahid and Nacer Guerrouache, Guerrouache group,
and Stephane Gustinelli, Head of Cleia Robotic (from left to right)

With regard to the installed technologies and the variety of bricks and insulating blocks that can be manufactured there, the new Argibordj brick plant in Bordj Bou Arreridj, which has just been commissioned by Cleia for the Guerrouache group, is one of the most modern brick plants, with one of the highest production capacities in Algeria.

The technologies implemented for this new plant enable the production of standard B8 and B12 hollow bricks as well as insulating blocks with vertical perforation, for which there is a promising market in Algeria.

At the output of the 850 moulding machine supplied by a Cleia partner, the wet products are loaded by a gripper onto an external tray circuit. This technique does not use limit stops or loading and unloading pushers.

The products are handled with the greatest precision and care so the bricks and blocks are not damaged. Moreover, this technological innovation enables the creation of a buffer of products upstream and downstream of the Zephyr dryer, to make the process more flexible.

The dryer trays are loaded and unloaded by a large-capacity multi-fork system suitable for wet and dry products.

The Zephyr dryer, without doors – another innovation patented by Cleia – allows fast drying of three cars next to each other. This Zephyr dryer from the Argibordj plant is the world‘s widest drying tunnel without intermediate supports. With variable step adjustment, it optimizes the drying cycle and enables the drying of difficult raw materials to which recycling products have been added.

At the outlet of the dryer, dry products are prepared for stacking with two robots making piles measuring 1 200 x 1 200 mm with four bricks in depth. This new stack format, introduced by Cleia in several brick plants in Algeria, is much more scalable than the 900-mm stacks, and opens up perspectives for large-format insulating products with vertical perforation.

The 200-m-long and 8-m-wide Technofast kiln is lined completely with refractory material. With regard to its nominal production capacity, it is currently one of the largest kilns operated in Algeria.

Two robots unload the cars with six packs over their width and set the fired products down on a sorting line that takes these to the packaging installation.

The products are strapped horizontally and vertically, then the packs are taken back by the forklift to the storage and dispatch area.
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