Wienerberger, the largest producer of baked bricks and roof tiles in the Czech Republic, is developing a robot for bricklaying. The prototype should be ready in the middle of next year, with the first buildings to be bricked in the second. The robot will replace the work of a five-man masonry crew. The company has invested tens of millions of CZK in the development, according to Wienerberger CEO Kamil Jeřábek. The project was supported by the Czech Technology Agency with CZK 35.6 million, according to the agency. The Czech Technical University in Prague is also involved in the development.
“In response to the lack of labour in the construction industry, Wienerberger is developing a masonry robot together with a small start-up. The project has been running for about two years and a production prototype of the robot, which will be able to build long walls, should be ready in mid-2023. It will be able to create space for windows and doors in those walls. It’s something that could be a big change in the construction industry. It’s an early development stage, but we want to get it going for pilot projects that we would like to build with the robot in the second half of next year,” Jeřábek said.
The company wants to build some apartment buildings with the robot first. It is already testing the robot on site, and the tests have been successful. The company wants to use it on long walls such as the walls of supermarkets, halls. “It can also be a skeleton structure that will be bricked up inside, five metres or more. The robot has a range of five metres, the area it will be able to create (at one time). Then it shifts, ties up and moves on,” the director described.
He said the machine would replace the work of a five-man masonry crew. It will have its own operator. “It will replace the heavy manual labour of a bricklayer,” the director said. The construction industry, he said, is minimally digitalised. The robot, which Wienerberger is preparing together with KM Robotics, will be the first step towards allowing digitisation to happen on a large scale, the director added.
Another goal is the research and development of a working sample of a brick block designed for the machine’s needs. The material is designated RR (Robot Ready).
Wienerberger had net sales of CZK 4.42 billion last year. It grew by 20.6 percent year-on-year. Profit after tax rose 30.8 percent to CZK 785 million. This is according to the annual report. This year’s turnover will be higher year-on-year and profit will be at least similar to last year, Jeřábek said in November. In 2019, the company completed a merger with Tondach ČR, a manufacturer of roofing materials. It has about 900 employees. It is a member of the Wienerberger group – the world’s largest listed brick manufacturer.
Source: Wienerberger and CTK
