Block Machine for Sale Bahrain: What a Quotation Should Contain

Block machine for sale Bahrain offers usually arrive as one number at the foot of a page, and that number is the least informative line in the document. Two offers can sit within a few percent of each other and describe different plants: a different host model, a different cavity count, a different pallet, different handling after the press. An offer either itemises what is delivered or hides the difference behind a total.

The data below comes from published QST specifications. Use it as a checklist against any offer, whatever the badge on the frame.

Start with the host machine, not the total

Pin down the model first, because a series name is not a model. The QST6-15 runs a 15 to 23 s cycle on a 980 x 680 x 20 mm pallet, at 68 kN, 34.4 kW and 12 t. The QST1200 runs 15 to 25 s on a 1,350 x 880 x 25 mm pallet, at 150 kN, 57.6 kW and 17 t. The QST1800 runs 15 to 25 s on a 1,400 x 1,400 x 30 mm pallet, at 280 kN, 104 kW and 34 t.

Those numbers decide the rest of the plant. Vibration force and pallet area set what leaves in one stroke. Installed capacity sets the supply you bring to the cabinet. Weight sets the foundation and the lifting plan. A capacity figure with no model, cycle time or pallet size is a hope, not a specification.

Take the QST6-15 at the fast end: 3,600 s an hour divided by 15 s gives 240 cycles, 240 cycles over an 8-hour shift gives 1,920 pallets, and 1,920 pallets at 6 hollow blocks per mould gives 11,520 blocks, which is the top of the published band and not a guaranteed output. The bottom of that band is the same chain at 20 s.

Which mould set, and how many cavities?

Cavity count multiplies every cycle, and it is the item most often left vague. On the QST6-15 a 390 x 190 x 190 mm hollow block mould gives 6 pieces per stroke; a 240 x 115 x 51 mm standard brick mould on the same host gives 32 to 36. Same machine, same cycle, 6 pieces against 32 to 36.

Ask how many mould sets the offer contains, which product each makes, and what a later set costs when you add a product. Then ask what the mould is made of. A mould in the QS1500 class is wear-resistant alloy steel, CNC machined to micron level and hardened: frame, core, base plate, guiding assembly, positioning mechanism. Faces and fits are what you buy, and what wears.

One set turns a universal machine into a single-product plant.

Pallets, cuber and the handling after the press

The pallet is capital that repeats. A QST6-15 uses 980 x 680 x 20 mm pallets, a QST1200 1,350 x 880 x 25 mm, a QST1800 1,400 x 1,400 x 30 mm. How many ship with the machine is a line item, and usually too low. Fleet size follows the pallets standing in curing at once, not daily output. A QS-1200 feeder holds 3 stacks and returns an empty pallet in about 13 s at 3 kW.

After the press, handling is either in scope or it is not. A QS-1000G-A fixed cuber runs 16 to 18 s per layer at 15 kW, stacks to 1,300 mm, returns about 1,700 pallets per shift with one operator and clamps nothing below 50 mm. A QS-1200A runs 15 to 18 s per layer at 34.15 kW for about 3,800 pallets per shift, on 12,000 x 3,000 mm of floor at roughly 18,000 kg.

If the offer says stacker, ask whether it stacks on pallets or pallet-free, and who supplies the forklift. Carrying green product by hand is not a saving, it is a breakage rate you measure in the first month.

Batching, mixer and the control cabinet

A press without a batching machine is fed by a shovel and a guess. The PL series batching machine weighs each aggregate against a pre-set ratio on three-point induction sensors, doses fast then slow, and vibrates the hopper against bridging. The mixer is a separate decision: a CMP vertical shaft planetary mixer for face mix, or a QS-1200 twin-shaft in JS500 to JS1500 sizes. Both are sized against your moulding cycle, so the offer must state batch weight and discharge height.

The control cabinet is where cheap offers go quiet. Ask for the PLC make and model, the spare input and output count, the wiring diagrams, and whether the panel suits the supply you have. Installed capacity runs from 34.4 kW on a QST6-15 to 104 kW on a QST1800, and a 280 kN vibration system pulls it in bursts, not smoothly. The QST1000 quotes servo drive on closed-loop position, speed and torque, plus a PLC that holds the stored material ratio for each product.

Commissioning, training, spares, warranty and freight

These five lines are small in the total and large in the first month. Commissioning should be a stated number of days on site, counted from the day the machine is powered and your crew is available, not from the day the crate opens. Ask who pays the engineer's travel, and what happens if a foundation is late.

Training belongs in the same sentence: how many of your people, how many days, on which product. A fully automatic line is specified at 3 to 6 persons per shift, a finger-car line at 3 to 4 for the whole production task, a fixed cuber at one operator.

Then the crate: a spare wear parts list with quantities, not a promise of availability. Then warranty in months, what voids it, what it excludes, wear parts first on that list. Then freight basis: who books, where the seller's obligation ends, whether packing is included, who insures the load.

How do you put two offers on the same basis?

Fix the product, the cavity count and the cycle time, then convert both offers to one output figure. A large machine at a slow cycle and a small machine at a fast cycle can land on the same pallets per shift.

Then add back what each offer leaves out. An offer that excludes handling has not saved you the handling; it has moved the labour, the forklift and the curing floor area to your side of the table.

• Which exact model, and which cycle time does the capacity figure assume?
• How many mould sets, how many cavities each, for which product dimensions?
• How many pallets ship, at which size, and what does a second batch cost?
• Is the cuber in scope, and does it stack on pallets or pallet-free?
• Are batching and mixing included, with batch weight and discharge height?
• Which PLC, how many spare inputs and outputs, are drawings handed over?
• How many commissioning days, who pays travel, how many people trained?
• Warranty in months, what voids it, what it excludes?
• Freight basis: who books, where your obligation ends, is packing included?

Run that list once with both offers in front of you and the totals stop being the argument. Send product mix, pallet size, shift length and the crew you can staff, and a serious reply comes back as a configuration list.