A mold for making dry cast concrete blocks includes a pair of vertical shoulder forming sections, one along each of the opposite sides of the mold to form vertical front shoulders of a block. Each shoulder forming section has a shoulder roughening arrangement to result in molded, roughened shoulders of the block. Methods of making such blocks and the resulting block are included.

A method of forming a bladder cast ceramic matrix composite (CMC) article including infiltrating a CMC substrate positioned in a cavity of a mold body with a slurry. The CMC substrate includes reinforcement material defining inner spaces. The slurry includes solid particles and a carrier material. During infiltration, the slurry at least partially fills at least a portion of the inner spaces of the CMC substrate. The method also includes inflating at least one bladder that is coupled to the mold body and disposed within the cavity such that a surface of the at least one bladder in an inflated configuration contacts at least one surface of the CMC substrate. The method also includes drying the slurry to remove at least a portion of the carrier material form an infiltrated CMC and deflating the at least one bladder.

A molded concrete U-wall construction block including a molded concrete U-wall construction block structure formed from cured concrete poured about a block cage made from reinforcing material during a block manufacturing process. The block cage includes an open aperture formed in each of its stem reinforcing portions. During the block manufacturing process, the first and second support members of a support mechanism are inserted within the open apertures formed in the stem reinforcing sections of the block cage, and cooperate with the open apertures of the block cage so as to (i) support the block cage when being loaded into a block manufacturing machine, (ii) define central apertures molded in each stem portion of the concrete U-wall construction block structure, and (iii) lift the molded concrete U-wall construction block when being unloaded from the machine.

A machine for and method of manufacturing concrete U-wall type construction blocks by molding each concrete u-wall construction block from concrete poured about a block cage made from reinforcing material while said block cage is loaded within the machine. The method involves providing a system of molding jacket panels, including a core molding assembly having a pair of inside stem jacket panels that are adjustably supportable in a substantially parallel manner during a molding process, and arranged is such a manner that the front wall portion is molded in downwardly facing direction toward a horizontal support surface and completely enclosed in one or more molding jacket panels. Before block molding operations, the thickness of the front wall portion of the U-wall construction block is set by determining the thickness of a front wall surface liner and installing the front wall surface forming liner within the system of molding jacket panels.

An apparatus comprising a substantially smooth internal mold surface forming a cavity and one or more roughened sections of the substantially smooth internal mold surface having a plurality of irregular grooves, wherein each roughened section is inclined with a wider base and a narrower top.

An apparatus comprising a substantially smooth internal mold surface forming a cavity and one or more roughened sections of the substantially smooth internal mold surface having a plurality of irregular grooves, wherein each roughened section is inclined with a wider base and a narrower top.