CEB Press

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• Article Title: CEB Press

The CEB Story 2012. from Open Source Ecology on Vimeo.

Overview

CEB Press (aka "The Liberator")

Bricks pressed on The Liberator

The Liberator is OSE's automatic, high throughput Compressed Earth Brick Press. It is named The Liberator because it is intended to free people from the single highest cost of living - housing. See Cost of Living and GVCS Naming Convention.

The CEB is at product release status and is being actively manufactured at Factor e Farm. The presses was used heavily as a part of the Factor e Farm Infrastructure Buildout 2011. See latest press release on the MicroHouse 4 built in 2014 - [1]

Specifications

• Version 6 is our current model; exhaustive documentation release comming 4/30/15
• Open source hardware, controller, and software (CC-BY-SA, GPL)
• Controller includes automatic pressing and manual mode
• Does NOT come with a power source - it is powered by a hydraulic power source, such as by our Power Cube or a tractor hydraulic take-off.
• Full size bricks are 4"x6"x12", plain flat-faced bricks
• Brick height is adjustable from 1"-4"
• Brick dimensional variations: +/- 1/16"
• 6 full-sized bricks per minute at 14 gallon per minute hydraulic flow. Hydraulic solenoid valve is rated for a maximum of 30 gpm fluid flow at 3000PSI
• Fuel consumption with Power Cube running at 14 gpm fluid flow - about 1 gallon per hour
• System hydraulic pressure - 2300 psi
• Comes with hydraulic quick couplers ready to be connected to a power source
• Weight - 1700 lb
• Moving: brick press is moved with forks. Footprint (with legs in the inner position) allows machine to be placed in the bed of a 3/4 ton pickup. It has adjustable legs for uneven terrain. Machine can be moved around on a trailer (not included)
• Material cost: $4500-$6500 depending on sourcing; manual machine (without hydraulic solenoid, machine costs $1000 less in materials
• 3'x6' grate for tractor loading. Includes soil deflectors
• Includes hopper shaker to help soil move down the hopper
• Known bugs: machine has currently been tested in multiple day production runs and is stable at 6 bricks per minute. When solenoid valve ran with 2 Power Cubes at 28 gpm fluid flow, the valve would lock up from time to time. May be software, solenoid design, or Power Cube stacking issues, and requires detailed analysis. This bug was not seen when a larger diesel engine was used to power the brick press in 2010 at 30 gpm fluid flow.

Versions

See CEB Press Genealogy

• CEB Press 6
• CEB Press 5
• CEB Press 4
• CEB Press 3
• CEB Press 2
• Prototype 1 Completed blog post

Details

The CEB Press takes earth/dirt/soil and compresses it tightly to make solid blocks useful for building. Compressed earth blocks have many advantages as a building material: by making the building materials from the readily available dirt on the building site, they eliminate the need to transport bricks from elsewhere, reducing financial cost and environmental impact. Compressed earth blocks are very strong and insulate well against both heat and sound, making for very energy-efficient building (especially combined with the energy savings from not needing to transport them from offsite). Best of all, the material they use is already on-site and does not need to be purchased -- quite literally, dirt-cheap! See the wiki page on Compressed Earth Blocks and the CEB category for more details on building using CEBs.

The Liberator has been fully designed and tested by the Open Source Ecology team. Because the Liberator is an open source technology, you can freely download instructions to build your own from materials you can obtain yourself, or contact opensourceecology[at]gmail[dot]com to buy a kit or a finished machine.

Building a machine yourself might seem intimidating, but every step of the process is fully documented and the OSE community is available on our discussion forums if you need help, advice, or a little hand-holding.

Using the CEB Press, two people can build a 6 foot high (1.83m) round wall, 20 feet (6.1m) in diameter, 1 foot (30cm) thick, in one 8 hour day, though construction time will vary somewhat depending on preparation time, what equipment is available (tractor to prepare the ground and move the blocks where they need to go), the quality of the soil, and other factors. The bigger the block size, the faster a wall can be erected, but at the cost of heavier blocks that are more of a strain to work with. Blocks from The Liberator average 25 pounds (11.3kg).

See CEB Design for more information.

Product Ecology

Construction Product Ecology

From

• Induction Furnace
• Welder
• CNC Torch Table
• Ironworker

Uses

• Power Cube
• Rototiller
• Tractor
• Earth

Creates

• CEB Bricks

Enables

• Workshop
• Greenhouse
• HabLab

See Also

• CEB Design
• Compressed Earth Blocks
• Cinva Ram
• CEB_FAQ
• CEB Press/Rollers
• CEB Press/ModularRollers
• Hablab
• Metric CEB Press
• Field Testing 2011
• CEB Press/Videos

The Global Village Construction Set
Habitat	CEB Press	Cement Mixer	Sawmill	Bulldozer	Backhoe
Agriculture	Tractor	Seeder	Hay Rake	Well-Drilling Rig
	Microtractor	Soil Pulverizer	Spader	Hay Cutter	Trencher
	Bakery Oven	Dairy Milker	Microcombine	Baler
Industry	Multimachine	Ironworker	Laser Cutter	Welder	Plasma Cutter
	CNC Torch Table	Metal Roller	Rod and Wire Mill	Press Forge	Universal Rotor
	3D Printer	3D Scanner	CNC Circuit Mill	Industrial Robot	Chipper Hammermill
	Drill Press	Induction Furnace
Energy	Power Cube	Gasifier Burner	Solar Concentrator	Electric Motor Generator	Hydraulic Motor
	Steam Engine	Heat Exchanger	Wind Turbine	Pelletizer	Universal Power Supply
	Nickel-Iron Battery
Materials	Aluminum Extractor	Bioplastic Extruder
Transportation	Car	Truck
Key	Design	Planning	Prototype	Almost done	Full Release