School is Cool!

NCSU Architecture Students Tour Merry Oaks, NC Plants

 

On March 3, 2015 Dana Gulling, Assistant Professor, College of Design, School of Architecture and her talented group of North Carolina State University (NCSU) Architecture Students took a guided tour of Merry Oaks, NC plant number two (we have two plants on the site). Ryan Roth, our Kiln Supervisor and NCSU graduate, conducted the tour for these up-and-coming students. We started in the grinding room and toured through the entire process, ending at packaging.

 

 

Ryan discusses the raw material grinding process with the students.

 

 

Once the raw material exits the grinding building and moves to the pug mill, brick is extruded from a die, and formed into columns that move down the line, slated for special shapes, or standard brick. This is an example of a wirecut brick. Notice the smooth texture on the face of the brick. It is a very popular choice in the commercial sector.

 

 

Ryan gives a brief description of how we begin the special production brick making process – right from a newly formed brick column.

 

 

Once the column moves past facing and cutting, the brick takes a pit-stop at the setting machine, which organizes the brick for placement onto the kiln car.

 

 

Here we discuss the automated ‘rail-system’ that brings the kiln cars into the holding room, where we begin the drying stage of the brick making process. 

 

 

We have now moved down to the holding area just before the entrance into the dryer (in-line with our kiln). It looks like Dana is taking notes – this could mean pop-quiz time for the students!

 

 

We’ve lifted the gate to the kiln, as the bricks prepare to exit the kiln.

 

 

Students observe the de-hacking, blending, and packaging process. This entire process is automated and completed with the use of robotics, and human supervision. 

From here – the brick sent to the inventory yard, where they are electronically tracked, to await customer pick-up or delivery on Triangle Brick trucks.

We truly enjoyed providing a tour to the students and professor Gulling. Learn more about professor Gulling and the NCSU School of Architecture here.