How to Import a Block Making Machine into Iraq: What the Buying File Must Contain

How to import a block making machine into Iraq is settled months before anything is lifted onto a trailer. A machine is not released against a price and a phone call. It is released against a file with a fixed contents list: proforma invoice with model and serial number, packing list with the gross weight of every crate, foundation drawing for your slab, electrical schematic, mould drawing for the product you sell first, spare-part list, and an acceptance sheet signed at commissioning. Each page answers a question that would otherwise be asked at your gate, with the machine already on the ground.

The order in which the pages are produced matters more than the pages. Drawings come first: cheap to change, expensive to correct once the frame is welded. Weights and dimensions follow, because they set the transport class and the lift at both ends. The serial number comes last and stays useful longest, tracing every later document and spare-part order to one machine.

What must the buying file contain before the machine is built?

Assemble the file in one folder that travels with the machine. Ask for it before the proforma is countersigned, because two of the sheets are produced from the drawings and cannot be rebuilt later from a photograph.

• Proforma invoice with the model, the full serial number and the pallet size, for example 1,400 x 1,400 x 30 mm on a QST1800.
• Packing list with the gross weight and outside dimensions of each crate, not one total for the shipment.
• Foundation drawing, dimensioned for your slab, with anchor positions, anchor size and the load per anchor.
• Electrical schematic naming every motor, its installed power and the total, 104 kW on a QST1800 and 57.6 kW on a QST1200.
• Mould drawing for each product, with cavity layout, frame dimensions and piece count per mould.
• Spare-part list with part numbers for the first year of running, split into wear items and held items.
• Acceptance sheet, blank, to be completed and signed at commissioning.

How machine geometry decides how it can travel

Length and weight decide how a machine travels; distance decides almost nothing. A QST1800 is 15,500 mm long, 5,500 mm wide and 3,200 mm high, at 34 t on its own frame. A QST1200 is 11,500 mm long, 4,550 mm wide, at 17 t. A QST6-15 is 9,450 mm long, 3,300 mm wide, at 12 t. Three models, three transport classes, fixed the day the order is placed.

Oversize is a property of the design, not a packing choice. A QST1800 frame is 15,500 mm long and no crate makes it shorter, so the question is not how to reduce the machine but whether the last road, the gate and the crane take it at that size. On a QST6-15 at 9,450 mm and 12 t the same question is easier.

Weight per piece sets the lift, and the lift sets the yard. A 34 t frame needs lifting gear assessed at 34 t at the radius where it will work, not the first line of a load chart. One yard lets the crane stand beside the frame; another forces it to reach across a wall.

What must the buyer measure and send before the order is released?

Six measurements decide whether the machine can be installed at all, and all six are taken with a tape, not estimated from a drawing of the site.

• Gate and door clear width in mm, measured at the narrowest point, with the tape visible in the photograph.
• Access road width, the tightest turn, and any overhead cable or pipe lower than the machine height.
• Crane or forklift capacity at the yard, and the radius it can work at, checked against 34 t on a QST1800.
• Unloading space: hardstanding as long as the machine, with room to pull the trailer clear, 15,500 mm for a QST1800.
• Foundation slab: plan dimensions, thickness, reinforcement and the ground under it, so the drawing is issued for your soil.
• Curing yard position and size, because the pallet route sets the plant layout, and a QS-1200A cuber stacks to 1,400 mm.

From the tape measure to the signature: the release rule

Send those numbers with photographs and mark where the tape reads. A bare figure gets questioned and asked for again; a tape in frame closes the point in one exchange. Add the grid supply at your site and the hours you get it, because the schematic has to match the power you can deliver to the cabinet.

The release rule is one line long and it is not negotiable: no machine goes into production until the foundation drawing and the site measurement sheet are signed by both sides. The signature is not a formality. It means the slab dimensions, the anchor positions and the load per anchor were checked against ground that exists, and that the machine can physically enter the site it was bought for.

A slab poured to the wrong plan is the one error that cannot be corrected with a spanner. A gate narrow by a hand's width stops a 5,500 mm wide frame at the boundary, with the transport already paid. Both faults are found on paper for nothing, which is why the two signatures come before the steel is cut.

What happens on site during commissioning?

Commissioning runs in a fixed order, and each step has a test that either passes or does not.

Training sits inside that sequence, not after it. The operator who will run the machine should change the mould himself once under supervision, set the pressure against the 31.5 MPa rated figure, and read the counter and the fault screen back to the engineer. A handover where the engineer demonstrates and the operator watches produces a plant that calls for help on the first shift.

• Set the frame on the slab and level it, shimming at the points the foundation drawing marks.
• Drill and set the anchors, then torque them in the sequence in the drawing, not the sequence that is convenient.
• Connect to the schematic, check each motor in turn, then run the machine dry through a full cycle before any mix goes in.
• Record the counter at zero before the first trial, so working hours start from a known figure.
• Run the trial mould on your own mix, measure the first pallet of 390 x 190 x 190 mm hollow block, and compare the cycle with the 15 to 25 s the model is rated for.

The acceptance sheet is signed twice, and the second signature matters

The first signature closes commissioning: levelling, anchors, trial mould, counter at zero, operator trained, and a list of open items with a name against each. The second signature closes the first production shift of 8 h, and it carries the numbers that matter: pieces per mould achieved, cycle time measured, pressure held, scrap counted.

Keep that sheet with the proforma, the packing list and the drawings. It answers a question six months later about whether a fault was present at handover or appeared afterwards, and it is the only page in the file carrying a date both sides agreed on.