An industrial site visit to the ‘Weinerberger’ brick manufacturing facility in Kunigal, was organized on the 23rd of January, 2018. A total of 36 UG and PG students, along with 5 faculty members were on the visit.

The facility in Kunigal is the only Wienerberger brick manufacturing unit in India. It is a highly advanced eco-friendly factory. The end-products of the factory are Porotherm bricks of types HP and VP. The Porotherm bricks have rise husk, clay, granite dust, and other recycled materials as their raw materials.

The process of brick manufacture involves blending of raw materials, stored separately in enclosures. The blended raw materials are mixed with a maximum of 18% water, and fed into a brick extractor. The brick extractor uses different moulds for different types of brick products. The manufactured bricks emerging out of the extractor, are dried in chambers with moisture sensors, and then burnt at approximately 1000 degree centigrade for 24 hours. The burnt bricks are cooled to ambient temperature and offered for quality checks. The burnt bricks are tested manually for faults. The approved bricks are moved to the loading platforms/stock yards for distribution.  

The wienerberger factory also has a research and laboratory facility wherein all brick related testing as well as research work is undertaken.

The factory has a training area where training is imparted to trainee masons to be employed in projects involving wienerberger bricks.