Development of a crush and mix machine for composite brick fabrication

Currently, people are more and more concerned about the environmental protection. Municipal solid wastes (MSW) have bad effect on the environment and also human health. In addition, the amounts of municipal solid wastes are increasing due to the economic development, density of population, especially in the developing countries and they are recycled in a little percentage. To address this problem, the composite brick forming machine was designed and developed to make brick using combination of MSW and mortar. The machine consists of two independent parts, crusher and mixer part, and molding part. This paper explores the design of crusher and mixer part. The crusher has ability to cut MSW such as wood, paper and plastic into small size. There are two mixers; one is used for making mortar and other use for making slurry. FEA analyses were carried out to address the suitable strength of the critical parts of the crusher which ensures that crusher can run properly with high efficiency. The experimentation of the crusher shows that it has high performance for cutting MSW. The mixers also work very well in high efficiency. The results of composite brick testing have been shown that ability of the machine can performance well. This is the innovation of crush and mix machine which is portable and economic by using MSW in replacement of sand.