CEB Press

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Introduction

CEB - Compresssed Earth Block press - regarded as the highest quality natural building method; also used in upscale housing; does not require curing - so may be built continuously; lends itself to 100% onsite building material sourcing; excellent thermal, acoustic, and strength; aka structural masonry. Also usable in fences, cisterns, road paving, Usable for ovens in a bakery, pond dams, thermal storage cisterns, silos. Used for barns, dairy plant, bakery building, additinal housing, greenhouses, etc. I would go so far as that could be the secret weapon of the entire operation. Other connections in diagram: requires soil to be pulverized, which may be done with the agricultural spader. May be used for building raised beds, modular building and greenhouse units. High value flex fab enterprise opportunity for any entrepreneur interested in fabrication of machine- huge profits are possible, because other CEBs are expensive ($25k for one of 3-5 brick/minute performance). Livelihood opportunity for independent builders. Requires as little as 1 person to operate. OSE design is based on power from tractor hydraulics - where the tractor is a general tool that can supply power to a large number of devices. Output with 2 people - a 6 foot high round wall, 20 feet in diameter, 1 foot thick, can be built in one 8 hour day. Fabrication is simple - after metal is cut - a drill press is required for drilling holes for design-for-disassembly structure. Welding is required in a few places where bolting is not practical, such as the hopper box. Summary: a high performance, rapid, semi-skilled building technique, which lends itself as a building method for creating advanced civilizations. Lifetime design.

OSE Product Development Cycle - CEB

This OSE Product Development Cycle is explained on the main page. On this page, we go through the actual development process, from concepts to design to prototype to fabrication facility to production for market.

Core Team

Presently, we are recruiting the Core Team for this effort. We presently have the Factor e Team on technical development and Sam Rose on the social enterprise development. We are looking for peer reviewers and strategic developers.

Ecological Review

We ask a basic question at the outset: is the CEB press worth developing? Should you consider a CEB press if you are building your own house? Wikipedia provides a neutral overview of the CEB construction method. We do not have a neutral evaluation of this building technique because we conclude that no other building method comes close when an integrated evaluation is considered.

Consider these main building options for North America. You have a choice of wood: stick-frame, timber frame, post and beam; structural masonry: brick, concrete block, rock, CEB (note that CEB falls into the class of structural masonry); earth: adobe, rammed earth, stabilized earth blocks; and natural building methods: strawbale, cordwood, earthbag, papercrete, cob, and many others. Here are some considerations.

  1. Suitability of building technique for economic localization - CEB walls can be made with 100% insite soil, and even with the soil that is removed for a basement or foundation. Machine production can also be completely local. Only lumber houses can come close to localization potential when lumber is harvested locally and sustainably. Other earth or natural building techniques can use local material, but they don't contribute too much to mainstreamable localization economics because they are too expensive due to the building time requirements.
  2. Ecological qualities - 100% local, natural, onsite material, even for the 'mortar' - see Wikipedia. Non-stabilized earth and other natural building methods also score well on local, ecological use of materials.
  3. Strength - CEB is second only to rock and steel. Strength of CEBs is up to 2000 psi according to Wikipedia. Walls are tornado- and bullet-proof.
  4. Cost - if one has access to a $3-5k machine of the type being developed here and onsite soils, then CEB wins hands down. A tractor with loader and rototiller are required to prepare the soil for massive building projects.
  5. Building ergonomics - 3-5 bricks per minute (bricks are 6x12x4 inches) means a 6 foot high wall for a 300 square foot round building can be erected in one workday. This is possible because the mortar used is a slurry of the same material as the bricks, with added water. This is as fast or faster than walls with stick framing in the context of a 2-person team with tractor and rototiller. On this account, other natural building methods do not even come close. We have first hand experience with cordwood and earthbag, in that they take about 10 times more time than engineered methods. The natural building methods are not by any stretch easily replicable, unless one feels good about committing the large amounts of time
  6. Durability - Unsurpassed except for stone. 100-500 year lifetime is expected.
  7. Thermal properties - unsurpassed. Significant thermal flywheel.
  8. Aesthetics - see CEB house examples

Stick frame construction is the main building method in North America. It is a weak but fast building method, which makes money for developers but returns little value to the homeowner, if one considers lifecycle cost of buildings. Procuring lumber drains money out of local economies. This is not to mention clear-cutting and vast lumber monocultures that supply the lumber. We are interested in raising the standard of building, away from stick frame. We believe that with all these considerations, the CEB is the only building technique that even remotely has a chance of substituting for stick frame constuction, and that with our machine, priced $3-5k and designed for fabrication replication, will fill in a great need. CEB construction has the potential for mainstreamability in home construction.

We have heard one recurring critique of CEB construction. It has been said that CEB building is either for the idle rich, who can afford the high cost of construction, or the idle poor, who can afford to take the time to build the house. Both cases imply outrageous time requirements, and this appears inconsistent with claim 5 above. Based on our experience we find that to be untrue. We believe that the truth is that poor people do not have access to high performance machines, and rich people are charged a lot because the quality of the finished product is high, regardless of how many hours went into construction. The answer to this seeming inconsistency is the availability of a high-performance, low-cost Liberator.

Our experience has shown $30/square foot costs for the cordwood house, and similar rates for the earthbag house, if $10/hour labor is considered. We estimate time requirements to be at least 5 times shorter for CEB construction, we are expecting $5/sq ft total building costs including $10/hour labor. That is dirt cheap for top quality housing. Direct data, gathered from our building program beginning in April, will prove or disprove our claims.

For these reasons, we conclude that anyone who is interested in building a new house, or making a house addition, should consider the CEB press seriously because of its ecological, economic, durability, replicability, and localization merits. While other building techniques may be superior on one of these qualities, CEB construction is the only technique that scores well on all these criteria.

Product Definition

Deliverable

Here are the specifications for the OSE CEB machine: The Liberator. Lifetime specifications will be verified in field testing.

  1. Bricks per minute output: 3-5
  2. Brick size: 12x6x6 inches (30.5x15.3x10.2 cm)
  3. People operating machine: 1-2
  4. Machine power source: tractor hydraulics or any hydraulic power source with 6 gallon per minute capacity
  5. Machine mounting: tractor 3 point hitch or stand-alone foot
  6. Hydraulic pressure: 2000psi
  7. Hydraulic cylinder: 5 inch diameter, 19.6 inch area; 2.5 inch rod
  8. Pressing cylinder pressure: 39,250 lb pushing force (~18 tons)
  9. Controls: 2 spool, manual, hydraulic valve; automatic version forthcoming.
  10. Compressive strength of bricks: to be measured
  11. Structural cold rolled steel construction throughout
  12. Design-for disassembly: full bolt-together construction for frame, compression chamber, table, tractor mount, and feet; welded hopper assembly and press plate; cylinders readily removable with pins
  13. Wearable components: 1/8" Nylon 6/6 liner on compression chamber and table surface, each piece held by 2 bolts
  14. Machine lifetime goals: 1 million bricks before repairs; liner may be replaced every 100,000 bricks
  15. Material costs: $1000-1350
  16. Fabrication time requirement for optimized production: 3-5 days, about 20 hours of direct fabrication
  17. Manual fabrication tooling requirements: drill press, welder, acetylene torch
  18. Optimal fabrication tooling: XYZ table with torch, MIG welder, hoist
  19. Cost for machine: $3-5k


We would like to emphasize our approach and cost predictions: we're open source, lean, mean, and optimal. This effort is funded by voluntary contributions, so our development costs are zero. We have low overhead costs of $107 per person per month because we have donated facilities and lifetime tenure. We are working on a thorough process for a quality product. Indeed, we aim to create a new model for the way products are developed. We aim for full transparency in our development process, so you can see how your money is being spent. And, we are giving the business model away for others to replicate. No strings attached. You can read details of our 3-year plan here.

Our pricing policy is to cover labor and fabrication costs, and to capture value from optimized fabrication. This means that we are able to fund further developments by putting all proceeds back into the operation, and you get a low-cost product. Both sides win. That is our pricing strategy. We are able to consider special payment arrangements for collaborators or others interested in development for the common good. We do not want cost to stand in the way of access to liberatory technology.

Timeline

January 16-20:

  • Recruiting of Core Team and Advisory Team
  • Documentation of existing CEB progress and CEB Product Cycle development

January 20-27:

  • Posting of Social Enterprise Website
  • Documentation of existing sawmill progress and Sawmill Product Cycle development

January 27- Feb 22:

  • Funding cycle #1
  • Bids procured

Budget

Here we present an economic analysis for the CEB machine to explain costs involved.

Here is the Bill of Materials (BOM) for the CEB prototype:

[Image:CEB_BOM.jpg]

Future Phases

Future phases for CEB evolution that we are considering beyond the present funding cycle are:

  1. Fully automated CEB machine, like The Liberator, where manual controls are replaced with automoatic valves and a control circuit. The only control required is turning the machine on, and from that point one simply loads soil and unloads bricks. Added material costs in this version are approximately $500.
  2. More powerful machines. More speed may be achieved by
    1. A dual machine, which features 2 compression chambers operating in parallel
    2. Faster machine by virtue of redesign to allow faster cycling through the steps

The automated machine is a clear and desirable upgrade, which essentially frees up one person to load soil, unload bricks, and build with the bricks right after they are produced. The other machines, such as dual or faster versions, will be reevaluated after significant experience has been reached by the Factor e Team and collaborators.


  1. Design Phase
  2. Review
  3. Bids
  4. Fundraiser Recruitment
  5. Fundraising
  6. Product Delivery
  7. Produce Testing
  8. Prototype Optimization
  9. Fabrication Development
  10. Fabricator Recruiting
  11. Fabrication Optimization
  12. Production
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