Tamil Nadu - Coimbatore   

Brick industry tries mechanisation

V.S. Palaniappan

Aim is to increase production, ensure quality

Coimbatore: Brick manufacturers in the Thadagam region are trying mechanisation to increase production to meet the demand and ensure quality supply.

The change had come at a time when the industry was struggling to find adequate manpower, brick kiln owners told The Hindu .

Normally, brick kilns used to get manpower from Dharmapuri, Theni and other southern districts. Now, the workers had gone in for employment either in industries that pay them more or as agriculture labourers as a result of good rainfall.

With the advent of machines, the native workforce would not be rendered jobless, the brick manufacturers said. They would be used in firing raw brick cakes and despatching them. Mechanisation would only help the industry shed its reliance on the workforce from other districts.

Close to 75 conventional brick kilns with movable chimneys and nearly 125 modern eco-friendly brick kilns with static chimneys located in Thadagam and Anaikatti areas meet the demand for bricks at and around Coimbatore and the Nilgiris. These kilns accounted for seven to eight loads each a day thus turning out 1,600 loads with 3,000 bricks in each load every day.

Under the conventional system, the bricks were made of table mould and were cut with hands. There used to be complaints about uneven shape in corners and undulated surface. This would reflect on the quality of concrete structure and in consumption of cement to make an even plastering of walls.

The manufacturers visited Pune, Calcutta and a few brick kilns in Tirunelveli, where machines were being used.

These machines could produce 5,000-7,000 brick cakes in just six to eight hours i.e., one shift. The bricks would have even surface and well-shaped corners.

A prototype had been installed in one of the kilns and put under trial. Depending on its performance, the industry would go in for a minimum 150 to 200 machines over a period of 6 months to make the entire industry mechanised, said C.R. Ramachandran, former Thondamuthur MLA and Thadagam Brick Manufacturers Association president.

Already price of brick for a load (without transportation cost) had come down from Rs. 8,000 to Rs. 6,000.

The price was expected to go down further once the production level increased and operational costs came down with mechanisation.

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