Portable Brick Cutter

Abstract

The problems that we identified from our research observations is the difficulty to cut the clay brick according to the required shape. Furthermore, another problem that we got is wastage of brick will be occurred. Number of wastages increased when brick cutting process has been done using existing tools. Otherwise, only the professional workers who has been trained under the brick cutting skill can perform well in cutting brick process, meanwhile it is difficult to perform by non-skilled workers like students. Objectives in this research are to create PBC as an alternative to the existing tool which is hammer and chisel, to produce variety of brick shapes according to the required size and to identify the effectiveness of PBC in term of efficiency and can reduce waste. In this research, design the machine using AutoCAD is been used and after that we fabricate the product namely Portable Brick Cutter using materials such As Mild Steel Square Tube Hollow as the main materials, they were welded together and the usage of bolt nut and screws as the joining elements was implemented. After the fabricating process, PBC was been tested and assessed the efficiency using questionaries. After all, we found 100% of the respondent agreed that PBC can reduced waste of brick, 100% agreed that it reduced time to cut brick, 100% agreed PBC is efficient to cut brick with neater outcome, easier to handle and can be carried anywhere. As we
mentioned earlier, we produced Portable Brick Cutter as an alternative to cut the brick easier than existing tools which is hammer and chisel. It is because only the professional workers who has been trained under the brick cutting skill can perform well in cutting brick process using hammer and chisel, meanwhile it is difficult to perform by non-skilled workers such as students. Next, Portable Brick Cutter also can produce three types of shape such as snapped header, quarter bat and three-quarter bat. By using existing tools, there is difficult to cut the clay brick according to the required shape. So that, to get required shape that needed is more accuracy by using PBC. Lastly, the effectiveness of this product has been proved in our observation by comparing PBC and existing tools in terms of the efficiency of time and number of wastage brick and questionnaire analysis. By using hammer and chisel, wastage of brick will be occurred and number of wastages increased when brick cutting process has been done using existing tools. In conclusion, Portable Brick Cutter is more efficient in terms of times and save more energy than hammer and chisel.