Improvements in Block Technology brought the
biggest change in Lehi Block since its early days. The blocks were
manually taken off the machine and placed on racks to be moved into the steam
curing kilns. Little did the Powells realize that several decades later
automated systems would enable them to boost their manufacturing output by
20 times.
The plant can now produce 20,000 blocks in 24-hours. Using these systems, block need not be touched by human hands until the mason lays
them in the wall.
In 1977, the installation of the block-making
machine enabled the firm to almost triple its production. That same year,
against the advice of skeptics, Lehi Block became the country's first block
company to use the innovative "Trac-A-Rac" which automatically
transported molded block into curing rooms and later to cubing stations.
This labor-saving machine greatly simplified and sped up the work.
In-house design and mold making are a part of the extended services that Lehi
Block offers its customers. The company offers a variety of products
including many styles of architectural units, structural units, paving units,
and retaining wall systems. Masonry block are available for attractive
building interiors. Colored masonry units can integrate space and maintain
harmony throughout a building.
For the first two years Art and his brother, Ralph, left the
plant at 4 a.m. to pick up a load of pumice from an area west of Utah
Lake. The pumice was drilled and blasted and then loaded and unloaded by
hand into the crusher which took about 16 hours. This was done 5 days a
week. Later cinder was trucked in from Fillmore for manufacturing concrete
block. Today expanded shale from Coalville is used.