What Block Sizes Are Popular in Syria? Hollow, Solid and Interlock

What block sizes are popular in Syria is not the first question a plant should answer, because a block size is not a national habit. It is the answer to a wall: how thick that wall is, whether it carries load, and how the unit is handled and laid on site. Those three things set the module, and the module sets the mould. We press 390 x 190 x 190 mm hollow blocks, 240 x 115 x 51 mm solid bricks, 200 x 100 x 60 mm interlock pavers and 250 x 250 x 60 mm square units, and we quote a machine after the drawing, not before it.

Wall systems differ from one project to the next, so the country is background, not the rule. What carries across borders is the logic: wall thickness module, mould layout, pallet size. Get those three right and the plant sells the unit local masons already know how to lay.

1. Wall thickness sets the module, not the map

A 390 x 190 x 190 mm hollow block is a wall thickness module before it is a product. The 190 mm width builds a 190 mm wall one unit wide, and the 390 mm length makes the head joints line up every 390 mm along the wall. A 90 mm or 140 mm partition needs another module and therefore another mould, and masons keep buying the unit their trowels, hammers and scaffolding are cut for.

The 240 x 115 x 51 mm solid brick covers the other half of the wall market: filled sections under lintels and sills, boundaries, and any place where the drawing asks for mass instead of a cavity. Solid work carries more raw material per square metre of wall, so the cycle time and the mix decide the cost. Our hydraulic presses hold a 20 to 25 second cycle on both hollow and solid units.

2. Four modules cover most orders

Four sizes carry most of the work we quote: the hollow block 390 x 190 x 190 mm, the solid brick 240 x 115 x 51 mm, the interlock paver 200 x 100 x 60 mm and the square paver 250 x 250 x 60 mm. Between them they cover walls, yards, paths and service areas, and each one has fixed cores and joint lines that the mould has to reproduce exactly.

• Hollow block 390 x 190 x 190 mm: the wall unit for load-bearing and infill work, formed with two or three cores and a 190 mm face.
• Solid brick 240 x 115 x 51 mm: mass where the drawing needs it, on lintels, sills and boundaries, run on the same presses with a different mould.
• Interlock paver 200 x 100 x 60 mm: the paving unit for yards and roadsides, laid without mortar so the gaps between units take up movement.
• Square paver 250 x 250 x 60 mm and kerbs: square tiles where a pattern is wanted, while kerbs are cut to the profile on your drawing, not taken from a stock list.

3. Pieces per mould: the layout decides, not the machine

A mould is a steel plate with pockets. How many pockets fit is geometry: the forming area of the press against the footprint of the unit, plus the wall of metal between one pocket and the next. On the 390 x 190 x 190 mm hollow block we list 5 pieces per mould on the QS800, 10 pieces per mould on the QS1000 and 12 pieces per mould on the QS1500. One block size, three outputs, three mould layouts.

Pavers show the same rule from the tight end of the range. The 200 x 100 x 60 mm interlock runs 16 pieces per mould on the QS600, 24 on the QS800, 32 on the QS1000 and 40 on the QS1500. The lower 60 mm height leaves room for more pockets, and the main cylinder grows from 450 mm bore to 720 mm bore so that the same 31.5 MPa packs every pocket to the same density.

4. Pallet size follows the forming area

The pallet carries the green block out of the mould, so it has to be at least as large as the forming area above it. Our hydraulic presses run four pallet sizes: 900 x 700 mm on the QS600, 1100 x 700 mm on the QS800, 1200 x 900 mm on the QS1000 and 1500 x 900 mm on the QS1500, with forming areas stepping from 850 x 700 mm up to 1440 x 850 mm across that range.

Pallet thickness rises with the load it takes: 20 mm on the smaller presses and 30 mm on the QS1500. Saving on pallet size shows up later as deflection under the stack, and deflection shows up as block height outside tolerance. Pallet supply and pallet life are the largest consumable line in a block plant, above even moulds.

5. Why a mould is cut to your drawing

A mould that has to be corrected by adjusting the machine was never specified correctly. Once the pockets are cut, two things are fixed in steel: the layout of the inner webs and the draft angle, the slight taper on each pocket wall that lets the green block release without tearing. If the angle is wrong for your mix and your unit height, no setting on the control panel adds it back.

Web position inside the block tells the same story. It decides where the unit carries load and where it cracks first, so a web shifted by 10 mm for tooling convenience is a different product from the one on your drawing. That is why we ask for the drawing, a sample, or a photograph with a tape across the face before we quote a mould.

6. What to send with your first enquiry

The press, the pallet size and the cycle time can be adjusted around your market. The cavity cannot. So before we quote a mould, we need the unit you already sell, measured rather than guessed.

• The wall thicknesses your local projects use, in millimetres, and whether the unit carries load or only fills a frame.
• Whether a face of the unit stays exposed, because an exposed face changes the mix and the finish of the mould.
• The pallet or board you handle today, if your yard is already running, so the new mould fits the handling you have.
• Your supply voltage and frequency and your destination port, so we configure motors and packing for the site.