Starting a Block Factory in Iraq Step by Step: The First Year in Order

Starting a block factory in Iraq step by step means accepting that the order of decisions matters more than the speed of any one. Each stage has a gate: a result you can measure before the next order goes out. Skip a gate and the cost shows up as a machine under a sheet in a yard with no power, or as pallets of block nobody ordered.

Two numbers frame the first year. A machine of the QST1200 class weighs 17 t and draws 57.6 kW installed, and a full automatic line runs from 30,000 to 250,000 pieces in an 8 hour shift. Everything else is about when to commit to the second figure, which is later than most buyers expect.

Which two or three shapes pay the bills?

The product mix is the first gate: it fixes the mould, the mix design, the pallet and the curing cycle at once. Open with two or three shapes you can sell repeatedly: a 200 mm hollow block for walls, a 100 mm partition block, and one paving or kerb item. Not eight.

The test is not what the market might want, it is what three named buyers have already asked for by size. Put those shapes on one page with dimensions, strength class and finish. That page is the specification the machine and moulds are ordered against.

Site and curing space, where the machine is the smallest number

On a block plant drawing the machine is the smallest rectangle. A QST1200 measures 11,500 x 4,550 x 2,800 mm, less ground than the curing area behind it and less again than the yard in front. Buyers who plan the shed around the machine and the yard around what is left end up moving green blocks by hand.

Three things are settled on the ground before any concrete is poured. Hard standing that carries a loaded forklift without rutting, because a loaded forklift on soft ground is how the first month is lost. Drainage that takes water away from the curing area. And curing space sized on the pallet count of the shift you intend to run.

Power, and the generator you order before the machine

The most expensive sequencing error is a machine on site and no power to turn it. Installed capacity for a QST1200 class host is 57.6 kW, and that covers the host, not the batching plant, the compressors and the yard lighting. Supply is decided from a load list, not from the machine plate.

Decide in this order: what the local supply can deliver, and whether a generator covers the gap for the whole plant or only for the host. Order the generator, then fix the machine order date. A generator bought after the machine lands costs weeks of production.

Two items belong here: the transformer and the cable route. Confirm in writing with your own electrical engineer what the site supply is and what the machine needs, before the foundation is cast.

Machine and mould matched to the mix

For a first plant, one automatic machine of the QST class is the low risk entry. It produces on its own, needs 3 to 6 people per shift, and leaves the curing and palletising investment for the point where orders justify it. A full line running 30,000 to 250,000 pieces in an 8 hour shift answers a signed order book, not a plan.

Moulds follow the product page, not the reverse. Two or three moulds for the shapes on that page, one spare set of wear parts, and a written changeover procedure. A machine ordered with six moulds for shapes nobody asked for is money standing in a rack.

Cycle time is where the arithmetic becomes honest. A 15 to 25 second cycle on a 1,350 mm by 880 mm pallet sets the real output of the shift, and the nameplate assumes the pallet flow never stops. Ask what the pallet feeder and the cuber do during a mould change.

How many people does the plant need, and who is trained on what?

A complete automatic line runs on 3 to 6 people per shift, and the top of that band is a choice about how much stays manual, not about machine size. The posts are batching, the host operator, pallet and curing, packing and loading, and one person who owns maintenance.

Training is specific. The host operator learns cycle rhythm, block height and the sound of a normal press, and learns to stop the machine without asking permission. The batching operator learns mix ratio and moisture, because the first bad pallet is born there. Maintenance learns the alarm log and the pressure reading, and is never rostered as spare labour.

Train the second shift first. A plant with one trained shift and one that improvises makes good block for eight hours and arguable block for the other eight.

What does the first rejected pallet tell you?

Commissioning has three milestones and only one is good news. First blocks prove the machine runs. First test proves the mix and the cycle can hit the declared strength and dimension. The first rejected pallet proves the plant can see its own failure, and that is the one worth waiting for.

Run the rejection on purpose. Take a pallet from the first hour, break it, measure it, write down the defect: soft face, short height, chipped corner, variation between the first and last block in the mould. Change one variable and run again. A plant that rejected nothing in week one has no test.

Selling belongs in this stage. Send the first pallets to the three buyers named on the product page while the piles are still small, because a yard full of block is a price negotiation you have already lost. Sell from the pallet and let the second order set the plan.

Four ordering errors, and twelve months written as gates

The four errors that eat the most time are all ordering errors: each puts a purchase ahead of the information it needs.

• Machine before power: the host arrives, the supply does not, and the plant waits beside a machine it cannot run.
• Mould before product: moulds are ordered against a guess about the market, and the shapes that do sell need a second set.
• Yard before machine: paving and sheds are built to a layout the curing line then has to squeeze into.
• Sales after stock: block is piled first and offered second, which turns the first order into a discount.

Read the first year as gates. Months 1 and 2: product page signed, three shapes, three named buyers. Month 3: site plan, load list, supply answer in writing. Months 4 and 5: machine and mould order placed. Months 6 and 7: foundation, hard standing, drainage, curing area. Month 8: power and generator on site. Month 9: commissioning, first test, first rejected pallet. Months 10 to 12: repeat orders, then the decision on a full line and a second shift.

Three numbers to review monthly, nothing else on the board: pieces per shift against the configured figure, rejected pallets as a share of pallets pressed, and confirmed orders against quotations issued. When rejects climb while output holds, the mix or the mould is moving.

The sequence compresses only where a buyer already owns the yard, the power and the customers. Send the shapes you intend to sell, the raw materials you have, and the site plan with the supply answer, and the machine and mould list comes back matched to those.