Insulated faux brick (IFB) is an improvement on traditional faux brick that aims to further reduce weight and installation time while providing insulation characteristics beyond traditional brick. Current production of insulated faux corner bricks relies on human workers to apply adhesive and press together two end pieces until the adhesive has dried. This is a time-consuming step which is not easily scalable to higher production rates. This research explored potential automated solutions to meet the ever-increasing demand. Specifically, the concept discussed in this paper uses a modular array of joining units that can be repeated to achieve the desired scale of production. This concept was verified through the construction of a beta prototype containing two joining units and a low-cost glue dispensing system to service both units. The prototype was operated continuously with an average throughput greater than two bricks per minute and with similar quality to the manual process. Based on a critical path analysis, a production system with eight joining units based on the same modular architecture has the potential for a threefold increase in production rate per worker.

绝缘人造砖（IFB）是对传统人造砖的改进，旨在进一步减轻重量和安装时间，同时提供超越传统砖的绝缘特性。当前生产的绝缘人造角砖需要人工来施加粘合剂并将两个端头压在一起，直到粘合剂变干。这是一个耗时的步骤，不容易扩展到更高的生产率。这项研究探索了潜在的自动化解决方案，以满足不断增长的需求。具体而言，本文讨论的概念使用了可重复使用的连接单元的模块化阵列，以实现所需的生产规模。通过构建一个包含两个连接单元的Beta原型和一个为这两个单元提供服务的低成本胶水分配系统，这一概念得到了验证。样机以平均每分钟大于2块的平均吞吐量连续运行，并且质量与手动处理相似。基于关键路径分析，具有八个基于相同模块化体系结构的连接单元的生产系统有可能使每个工人的生产率提高三倍。