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Posted: Tue Jan 20, 2009 9:44 pm
by GB_Groundworks
went past a new pub today and they were laying the block paving with one of those block paving machine with the carriage out in front of the cab that pics up a layer at a time and lays them down.
now my question is does the block come stacked as normal or do they do special packs so the layers are in patterns already. logic would dictate that they would have to come that way and do they do lots of patterns or just herringbone?
was just wondering thats all
giles
one of these
Posted: Tue Jan 20, 2009 9:52 pm
by GB_Groundworks
answered my own question oops haha
Can any blocks be laid by machine?
No. In order to be machine laid, blocks must be produced in a format suitable for the laying machine to pick up each layer of the pack and place it within the laying pattern.
What blocks are currently available in the UK for machine laying?
Most UK manufacturers are working on producing blocks suitable for machine laying but currently there are two shaped blocks available for conventional laying, Marshalls Eskoo and Cemex’s Unicoloc. There are also two permeable, shaped blocks available Cemex’s Uniecoloc and Hanson Formpave's ML block.
The best news is that for some years,Tolly Paving have been working with UK block manufacturers and Probst,who manufacture blocklaying machines in Germany, to provide a solution to machine laying conventional 200 x 100mm rectangular blocks in herringbone pattern and this has resulted in the 45herringbone layer. This block can be laid in either 45 or 90 Herringbone pattern on site and has the benefit that the only hand lay involved is at the edges of the paved area.
This format is now available in both standard and permeable versions from several manufacturers.
All previous herringbone systems have relied on blocks being inserted by hand to tie adjacent clusters together entailing between 10 and 40% of the blocks (according to system/layout) still being laid by hand, this both increases manual handling risks and reduces production rates and whilst Tolly Paving can lay these systems, the above factors make this format less competitive
Posted: Wed Jan 21, 2009 3:40 pm
by James.Q
done this type of paving just outside of berlin in 1997 fantasticly quick. all screeding done by machine then the block laying machine had a brush attachment like a big roller on the front for brushing the sand in. over 500mtrs in one day the only draw back was the machine could only lay upto 60mm blocks so all loading bay areas had to be hand laid 
Posted: Wed Jan 21, 2009 6:39 pm
by Tony McC
Along with another 20-odd pages, there is a half-finished page on my hard-drive that covers machine-lay paving. If I ever get the time, I will finish writing the text, but at the moment, I'm busy updating some of the more popular pages on the site.
I suspect Giles's quote comes from a certain installation company's website and it's not 100% correct. There are several shaped blocks available in machine lay (ML) format from most of the major manufacturers, and a number of competitors would challenge the assertion that the company in question has been as instrumental in the development of ML paving as they like to think (it's a VERY sore point in that part of the industry!)
I have some crazy video footage of ML block paving taking place in Oakland California when I was there for the block paving conference a couple of years ago. It's in quicktime format, which has been a bit of a problem but if anyone is interested, I'll try uploading it to that YouTube yoke.
Posted: Wed Jan 21, 2009 7:00 pm
by msh paving
that pix is on line paving taken a sed 2006 i belive beside the probst stand correct me if im wrong, 
Posted: Thu Jan 22, 2009 9:43 am
by Tony McC
Yep: that pic was taken from my online review and shows Mark from On-Level paving doing his demo using Probst kit.
Posted: Thu Jan 22, 2009 6:37 pm
by GB_Groundworks
yes that quote was from a very self congratulating paving company's website, bit up their own ar8e i reckon haha.