Building Brick The Belden Brick Company Special Shapes - Limitless Possibilities The experts at Belden Brick's Special Shapes Division are prepared to move new brick concepts from your mind to the mason's hand. Architects and designers need not let their creativity be stifled by existing ideas of what a brick should look like. We invite you to explore the artistic impact that special shape brick can have on your design. We have already created an amazing array of shapes, sizes, colors and textures for projects across the country. The brick you have in mind may already be here for your use. If not, we are prepared to offer you design and production services customized to your exact needs. You can rely on our special shape brick to provide unique design elements - corners, angles, curves, slopes and other dramatic effects that go on to become signature pieces of residential and commercial architecture. We can also provide unique colors, making your next building stand out as a one-of-a-kind structure or blend in with its surroundings or existing companion buildings.Your Partner In Design You can select from our extensive inventory of standard-shape die and molds for commonly used special shapes such as corners, radials, bullnoses, slope sills, headers, coping caps and other general shapes. You can also modify those shapes or create entirely new shapes of your own. Soft mud varieties or extruded brick can be mass-produced and fired to look exactly like centuries old hand made brick. When required, skilled artisans at The Belden Brick Company can also hand sculpt special shapes to create one-of-a-kind designs that might not be possible from a standard mold. Designing a special shape begins with your section and isometric drawing along with some basic information. We need information about the brick selection or finish and a brief description of how the brick will be used. From this information, we will create a computerized shop drawing to be submitted for final approval before going into production. The Making Of Brick Shapes Brick making is as much an art form as a manufacturing process. Especially for special shapes, there are many steps that remain best done by hand. Our raw materials include Ohio clays and shales that are carefully blended. Extruding this mixture through a die and cutting it to the proper width produces most special shape bricks. Some shapes are made by hand using molds built to exact customer specifications. An impressive inventory of dies, templates, mold boxes and other tools used for creating special shapes provide The Belden Brick Company with options for both large scale production runs or one-of-a-kind specialty items. Once molded into shape the clay or green brick is hand set onto kiln cars and taken to dry. Both standard and special shapes go through a critical, slow drying process and are then fired in high temperature kilns at the same time as the field brick to ensure both structural integrity as well as the desired appearance. We use both state-of-the-art tunnel kilns as well as the old style beehive kilns. Tunnel kilns provide more control for achieving uniform color continuity. Smoke or extra heat can also be added to create flashing, which enhances the brick color. Beehive kilns produce colors not available in tunnel kilns and are used when extended flashing is required. When the kiln and cooling process is completed, the brick are inspected, sorted and blended by hand to provide the desired color blend needed for the job site. This saves valuable construction time and ensures a balanced appearance. Shapes are then packaged, numbered and often coded to correlate with specific assembly instructions at the job site. You Can Design With A Difference Many building materials are commodity items. They are, by necessity, the same no matter when or where they are purchased. Architects and builders rely on these commodity items for many parts of their construction projects. For those elements of the project that need to stand out, that need to embody unique visual or structural characteristics, you require unique products like Belden Brick special shapes. Our special shape brick give form to function, and combine dramatic visual appeal with structural integrity. The unlimited range of sizes, shapes, color and textures enable you to Design with a Difference
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