Block paving (also known as brick paving) is an alternative to an asphalt road. It’s typically used for aesthetic purposes on roads where traffic is relatively slow. Unfortunately, the process of laying these roads is manually intensive and can by quite harsh on one’s back and knees. Dutch-company Vanku BV sought to address this issue with their Tiger Stone brick-laying machine.

The Tiger Stone is not automatic and still requires workers (2-3) to ‘feed’ the bricks, however their position is now upright and the actual laying of bricks is much more efficient, with the company claiming a team can lay about 300 square meters (3,230 sq ft) of brick road a day.

The machine can also lay various interlocking patterns simultaneously up to six meters wide (20 ft). The machine is simple to operate with virtually no mechanical/moving parts. The machine is electric drive reducing noise as well. To really get a sense of this machine in action, check out the video at the bottom of this post and you’ll understand why it appears that the Tiger Stone is literally printing roads!

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