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A plastic brick clay with high clay mineral content was selected and the effects of different extruder heads on the main physical properties of the extruded products were investigated. The raw material was processed by a laboratory extruder after homogenization and wetting. Extruder heads with conical and special (spherical and torus) inner shape were applied to form and produce the green products which were examined after drying and firing. The rotation of the extruder screw was also varied between 15-55 1/min. Applying optical microscopy and SEM, the structure of the green products was analyzed. In addition to the physical properties of the products, the pressure caused by the extruder heads was determined by theoretical calculation and measurement. The results revealed that the physical properties of the products could be changed only by changing the shaping die geometry when the product size and production method remained unchanged. Maximal compressive strength of fired brick products (35.45 MPa) was obtained in case of the spherical head while the use of torus head caused some 5% decrease in the power consumption of the extruder. The density of fired products decreased and water adsorption increased when the rotation speed of the extruder screw was increased. The measurements confirmed the theoretical order of the applied extruder heads in terms of capability of pressure generation.

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