Patent ID: 7458800

Claim:
A mold assembly for use in a block machine to form multiple pre-cured dry cast concrete blocks on each cycle of the block machine, each block having upper and lower faces, a front face, a rear face and opposed side faces, the mold assembly comprising: a plurality of mold cavities, each comprising: a plurality of side walls defining a mold cavity having an open mold top and an open mold bottom, a first of the side walls including a first converging side wall portion that is moveably mounted so that it is movable between a first molding position at an angle with respect to vertical so that the mold cavity is wider at its top than it is at its bottom when dry cast concrete is introduced into the mold cavity, and a second discharging position in which the bottom of the mold cavity is at least wide enough to allow a pre-cured concrete block to be discharged through the bottom of the mold cavity, wherein the first converging side wall portion extends across an entire distance of the mold cavity between two opposed side walls that are adjacent a second side wall; and a stripper shoe having a face that comprises a three-dimensional pattern for introduction into the mold cavity through the open top of the mold cavity to press the patterned face of the stripper shoe on dry cast concrete contained in the mold cavity, to impart a pattern to the front face of a pre-cured concrete block.