Achievements with the Auram Equipment

Achievements with the Auram Equipment

All earthen buildings in Auroville have been realised with the Auram equipment: See Earth in Auroville. The Auram press 3000 has been sold to many countries on all continents around the world. But most of the time people who buy the presses do not give any feedback on their achievements. The main feedback which was given to us was about the realizations done in Gujarat, India, for the rehabilitation the zones affected by the massive earthquake, which devastated huge areas of the district of Kutch in January 2001.

A few achievements of the Auroville Earth Institute in various countries

Earthquake resistant house built at Istanbul, Turkey	Al Medy Mosque built in 7 weeks at Riyadh, Saudi Arabia	Shri Karneshwar Nataraja Temple in Tamil Nadu, India
Low cost house built at Simunye, South Africa for technology transfer	School at Marakanam, Tamil Nadu, India	School at Jantanagar, Nepal built with community participation

Rehabilitation of Gujarat India: a few thousands of houses built in 2001 after the earthquake

The international charity organisation Catholic Relief Services (CRS) committed itself for assisting several rehabilitation programmes. They built 2,698 houses of various types in 39 villages (houses of 28 to 35 m²area). They produced about 8 millions hollow interlocking blocks for earthquake resistance and trained/employed more than 2000 people.

The technology with hollow interlocking blocks developed by the Auroville Earth Institute, which is earthquake resistant, has been approved by the Gujarat State Government. 75 presses 3000 have been supplied to Gujarat and some were operating on a continuous double-time-shift basis in the area. The average wet compressive strength achieved with the local soil stabilized with 8-9 % cement using these presses is around 50 kg/cm² (after 24 hours immersion).

These Auram Presses remained in the villages after the initial construction period was over, and they were meant to set up local production and construction units to help the villages in their ongoing development. The coordination of such a project was done by Architect Mehul Savla, who had been trained previously during one-year training at the Earth Institute. His team did an excellent work and the Auroville Earth Institute assisted them regularly in their works.

On site production by the CRS with 60 Auram presses 3000	Mass production by the CRS with 60 Auram presses 3000	Production of ~8 million CSEB by the CRS in 39 villages
Mass production of ~8 million CSEB by the CRS	Reconstruction among the ruins	Reconstruction among the ruins
A community centres built by the CRS	One of the thousands of houses built by the CRS	Model house with Mangalore tiles, built by the CRS
Model house with ferrocement channels, built by the CRS	Presentation to villagers of a model house built by the CRS	House built by the CRS

Achievements from Earthworks in Gambia lpha.omar.jallow@gmail.com

Mr Alpha Jallow, manager of the company Eathworks, followed a one-month training in Auroville for the production and use of CSEB and building with arches, vaults and domes. Earthworks are producing blocks for sale and they are taking up architectural design, construction contracts and doing consultancy.

Auram Press 3000 in Gambia	Construction site at Sandele, Gambia	Resort at Sandele
Vaulted structures for the resort at Sandele	Corbelled domes at Sandele	Water tank with CSEB, built on round blocks 290

Achievements by Ben Ogun in Nigeria ben_ogun86@yahoo.co.uk
Mr. Ben Ogun was trained at Auroville and he went back, assisted by a mason from the Auroville earth Institute to start his company

Team of Ben Ogun

First house built in a few months

House built with the Auroville Earth Institute technologies

Achievements by AnyWay Solutions

AnyWay Solutions is a company based in Israel who develops among other things a stabiliser for soil. Their endeavour is not just to develop and market a product which is an alternative to cement but they are looking to propose sustainable and endogenous development with local communities, especially in Africa. AnyWay Solutions sent 2 trainers in Auroville in 2005 and Satprem Maïni went in 2006 to train again more people at Tel Aviv, Israel. Since then there are regular collaborations between AnyWay Solutions and the Auroville Earth Institute. Among their projects we can note:

•    Madagascar, Prison camp Project
In the framework of the “Madagascar Action Plan” (MAP), a rehabilitation programme of prisoners included training in block production and building trades for the construction of housing for teachers. The project was sponsored by Delta Norway Madagascar Ltd.

•    Madagascar, La vitrine Project
The president of Madagascar selected this project called: La Vitrine” where the future technologies and techniques for the MAP would be presented. The project was to build 17,000 houses for teachers and 7,000 classrooms. AnyWay Solutions sent experienced trainers from Israel to train skills of compressed stabilized earth block production and with the trainees they built 1 house and 1 classroom as demonstrations.

•    South Africa, Simunye Project
In collaboration with the Gauteng Economic Development Agency (GEDA), the Sinqobile Community Youth Trust and Desert Star, AnyWay launched its Rural Community Development Plan (RCDP) for the first time in South Africa. The scale of the project was to build 4,000 houses. The manufacturing of blocks for a house was done during December 2006. It was followed by the construction of a demonstration house with the assistance of the Auroville Earth Institute. A section of road was also done by AnyWay Solutions. All activities were done with the active participation of the local community.

•    South Africa, Exxaro’s Project
Concurrent with the expansion of one of its mines in the northern part of South Africa, Exxaro Coal embarked on a demonstration for Breaking new ground that would incorporate also Compressed Stabilized Earth Block stabilised the AnyWay’s products. The scale of the project was to build 600 houses. The project seeks to establish sustainable development through the use of the CSEB technology. Two different demonstration houses were built by AnyWay Solutions with an aim of sustainable and environmentally friendly development.

Madagascar, La vitrine Project – Block making	Madagascar, La vitrine Project – Demonstration house	South Africa, Exxaro’s Project – Block making
South Africa, Exxaro’s Project – Demonstration house	South Africa, Simunye Project Demonstration house built in 12 days	South Africa, Simunye Project – Inside of the house

To download complete Achievements with the Auram equipment as PDF file, Click here

Handling the Auram Press 3000

Handling the Auram Press 3000

The automatic opening of the Auram press 3000, combined with the sliding hopper assures a higher productivity than other presses. The theoretical daily output is 1,000 blocks but one can expect practically 850 blocks per day of plain blocks 240 or 290. The Auram press 3000, beside its versatility, presents the advantage to give more regular quality blocks than other presses worldwide. The mould is all the daylong fed with the same quantity of mix soil, due to the sliding hopper. The productivity is also increased by the fact that the sliding hopper does two operations: When it slides above the mould, it pushes the block which had been compressed earlier and then the soil mix falls in the mould when the lever is pulled back up.

The press requires a total number of 7 workers for the block production:
•    3 People for mixing: They measure first the various components and deliver the materials to the block yard. Then they mix first dry (minimum 2 times), add water and mix again minimum 2 times.
•    1 Operator who feed the press with the hand shovel (Scoop) into the hopper. Then he slides the hopper above the mould and pushes it back. Finally he closes the lid. He checks the quality of blocks with the pocket penetrometer and the block height gauge (delivered with the press). This checking is done only for the first block of every new mix. Time to time he has also to clean the corners of the mould and the plates with the scraper delivered with the press.
•    2 People on the lever for compressing the mix. They first pull down the lever till the end of compression. In one single action, they go ahead pressing down till the lid opens automatically with the chain system and then press further down to eject the block. Note that the press compresses with 15 tons force and it is usually not possible to press down the lever with a single man.
•    1 person for stacking the block for the initial curing. This stacking is done near the press. He covers regularly the blocks with a plastic sheet so as to avoid any evaporation of the moisture of the mix.

The Auram press 3000 is delivered with quality control devices:
•    A pocket penetrometer: to check the compression quality.
The press 3000 gives most of the time higher compression than other manual presses and when the press is well adjusted for a good soil, the pocket penetrometer would penetrate only 2-3 mm in the block instead of the tolerable penetration of 6 mm.
•    A block height gauge: to check the block height.
With the micro adjustment of the block height, the press 3000 can insure high accuracy of the height (~ 0.5 mm), which is essential for interlocking blocks or blocks which are used for arches, vaults and domes.

Note that the pocket penetrometer and the block height gauge are also indicators for the moisture content in the mix
Once the press has been adjusted properly according to the soil, any variation with the pocket penetrometer and/or the block height gauge will mean the following:
•    When the pocket penetrometer penetrates the block more than usual, the moisture content is higher than normal. Thus the moisture content of the mix has to be corrected for the next batches and the press should not be touched.
•    On the opposite side, when the pocket penetrometer penetrates less into the block, it means that the mix is too dry. The next batches of mix should be moister and the press should not be touched.
•    When the block height is more than usual, the moisture content is dryer than normal. Then add more water for the next mixes.
•    On the opposite side, when the block height is less than usual, it means that the mix is too wet. Add less water for the next mixes.

Opening the lid of the press by pulling the handle	Automatic opening of the lid	Feeding the press with the scoop into the hopper
Sliding the hopper above the mould	Pushing back the hopper to level the soil in the mould	Closing the lid
Starting the compression, while the operator fills the scoop	Pulling down the lever, while the operator supplies the mix	Automatic opening of the lid, while the operator fills the hopper
Ejection of the block, while the operator fills the hopper	Checking the quality of compression with the pocket penetrometer (Only for the first block of every new mix)	Sliding the hopper to push the block and to fill the mix into the mould
Checking the block height with the block height gauge (Only for the first block of every new mix)	Handling the block to stack it near the press for the initial curing	Brushing time to time the table with a brush
Scraping regularly the bottom plate with the scraper	Cleaning occasionally the corners of the mould with the scraper	Brushing time to time the top plate with the wire brush

Basic process of block making

To download complete Handling the Auram Press 3000 as PDF file, Click here