What Is Included in a Block Making Machine Quotation? Line by Line

What is included in a block making machine quotation separates a working plant from a press standing on a plinth. Most offers describe one machine and leave the rest of the line to you. Every line should name a component, a number and a boundary. A line that names only a component leaves you to price the rest yourself.

A full-line offer carries more line items than a brochure suggests. Six decide whether the plant earns: host machine, mould set, pallet fleet, cuber, batching scope, electrical boundary. The rest decide whether it starts on time.

What should the host machine line tell you?

The host line is the only place cycle time belongs. A model number alone says nothing: the same frame ships with different moulds, and output follows the mould. Demand the model, the cycle time band, the moulding force, the pallet size and the installed capacity in one line. On a QST1800 that band is 15 to 25 seconds, the vibration force is 280 kN, the installed capacity 104 kW, the weight 34 t, the pallet 1,400 × 1,400 × 30 mm.

Ask what the capacity figure assumed. A QST1800 is quoted at up to 220,000 standard bricks per 8-hour shift, a QST1200 at 120,960. Both are honest at the fast end of the cycle with one product. Yours is not that product, so read the figure as a ceiling.

Moulding force and rated pressure are different numbers. The 280 kN is vibration force, the 31.5 MPa is hydraulic pressure, and vibration runs at 3,800 to 4,500 times per minute. Those three set how fast the mix densifies.

The mould line carries your product range

One mould set makes one product at one size. Cavity count multiplies everything: a QST6-15 mould with 6 cavities of 390 × 190 × 190 mm makes 6 hollow blocks per stroke, a QS600 mould makes 16 pavers of 200 × 100 × 60 mm. "One mould set included" hides which you are buying.

The costliest omission is the second block size. A plant selling hollow blocks and pavers needs a set for each, and a second set carries its own lead time. Put every size on your product list into the offer, with a cavity count for each.

Mould steel is the second question. Cavity walls wear at the edges first, and wear shows as flashing and height drift across the pallet. A QS1500 class mould is wear-resistant alloy steel, machined on CNC to micron level and heat treated. Ask what the set is made of before you sign.

How many pallets does the curing cycle demand?

Pallet quantity is not a rounding item. The fleet must cover every pallet in curing at once, plus those under the machine, in the cuber and in transit. Run the chain: 3,600 seconds divided by a 15 second cycle gives 240 pallets an hour, and 8 hours gives 1,920 pallets a shift.

Now apply curing. If each pallet sits a full shift before it returns, 1,920 pallets are locked in curing at any moment, and a second curing shift doubles the fleet to 3,840. At 25 seconds the machine makes 144 pallets an hour, 1,152 a shift, and the same rule applies.

"Pallets: buyer supply" is therefore not an incomplete line, it is a second purchase. Get quantity, thickness and material on the page. Thickness matters: 30 mm on a 1,400 × 1,400 mm pallet, 25 mm on a 1,350 × 880 mm pallet, 20 mm on smaller frames. A stacker set for 30 mm will not run a 20 mm pallet unadjusted.

Cuber, batching and conveying: the lines that decide the crew

The cuber is the line most often left out, because the press works without it, at the cost of a crew and forklifts. A QS-1200A cuber covers 12,000 × 3,000 mm, draws 34.15 kW, cycles at 15 to 18 seconds per layer and stacks to 1,400 mm, with 125 solid bricks or 18 hollow blocks per layer. Its rated 3,800 pallets per shift is the flow your yard must absorb.

A fixed cuber changes the labour line. The QS-1000G-A runs about 1,700 pallets per shift with one operator, clamps nothing thinner than 50 mm and stacks to 1,300 mm. If your range includes thin pavers, that 50 mm floor belongs in the quotation.

Batching and mixing are usually a separate scope, and that is where the mix drifts. A PL series batching machine weighs each aggregate against a pre-set ratio on three-point induction sensors, with fast and slow dosing. A QS-1200 pallet feeder returns an empty pallet in about 13 seconds on 3 kW, and the press cannot cycle faster than that.

Where does the electrical scope end?

Every quotation has an electrical boundary and most leave it unstated. The control cabinet, the PLC and the machine terminal box are normally inside the offer. The cable from your main panel to that box, the panel itself, the earthing and the transformer are normally outside it. Until someone writes it down, each side assumes the other pays.

Installed capacity sets the size of that work. A QST6-15 draws 34.4 kW, a QST1800 draws 104 kW, and the difference is a different cable, breaker and possibly a different supply. Ask for the figure per motor group: vibration, hydraulics and conveyors start together.

Control specification deserves its own line. Ask which faults the screen displays and whether the machine stops at the fault, because a line that points at the fault needs no specialist on call.

Packing, freight basis, commissioning and payment

The commercial half decides when the machine runs. Start with packing: which items are crated, which travel loose in the frame, and whether the mould set ships inside the host frame. Loose wear parts need a name and a quantity each, because a seal kit bought later costs more.

Freight needs a basis and a named port of loading. "Freight to be advised" leaves the largest line of your budget open, and three questions unanswered: who unloads at destination, who pays terminal charges, who carries the risk in transit. Write basis, port and unloading party on one page.

Then the services. Commissioning needs a number of days and a named party paying travel, accommodation and the technician. Training needs days and a place. Warranty needs a period and a list: structure, hydraulics, PLC, moulds. Moulds are usually excluded, but the paper must say so. Tie each instalment to a visible event: order, readiness for dispatch, arrival, acceptance after commissioning.

Which omissions cost most later?

Five omissions surface in the first year, all visible on paper. No mould for the second block size. Too few pallets for the curing cycle. An undefined electrical scope that leaves your cable and panel work uncosted. No named party unloading at destination. No spare seal kit or limit switches.

Tick this list against any offer:

• Host machine: model, cycle time, moulding force, installed capacity, pallet size, weight.
• Moulds: one line per block size, with cavity count, dimensions and steel grade.
• Pallets: fleet quantity, thickness, and who supplies them.
• Cuber or stacker: model, cycle per layer, stack height, footprint, power.
• Batching, mixing, conveyors and pallet return: inside or outside the offer.
• Electrical: cabinet, PLC and terminal box in, cable and panel out.
• Spare wear parts shipped loose, named and counted; packing and freight basis.
• Commissioning days, training days, warranty coverage, payment schedule.