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By Michael Weaver, Dale L. Ramsey

The Pinkerton Tunnel open cut project is part of the National Gateway Clearance Initiative improvement project to achieve a minimum of 21 feet of vertical clearance along CSX Transportation rail corridor so that double-stacked intermodal railcars can be transported between mid-Atlantic states and their ports to midwest markets in the U.S. This project involved drilling and blasting of 1.2 million bank cubic yards of rock over a 14 month period while maintaining rail traffic of two passenger and 38 freight trains daily. See story and photos, page 6.

Jan 1, 2015

By A B. Andrews

The use of sequential blasting techniques that combine surface and in-thehole delays has provided blasters with increased flexibility in blast design to promote good rock fragmentation and displacement while minimizing offsite blast effects such as air blast, flyrock, and ground vibration.

Jan 1, 1981

By R J. Hill

Blasters are well aware of the problems and expense faced when trying to load in wet bore holes; problems of poor coupling and poor density, as well as the expense of higher priced cartridge product. In answer to these problems, I developed a system for dewatering using nozzles with lay -flat plastic liners which I have used successfully over the last few years. I found the system not only gave me better shots than I could have expected in the circumstances, but also dramatically decreased costs. The system has been adopted by two large roading contractors and a quarry operation in Eastern Canada.

Jan 1, 1986

By Francis O. Otuonye

The results of an ongoing study to determine the response of full contact rock bolts to shock waves due to blasting are presented. A time domain systems modeling and analysis technique was used to identify the axial and bending response of the bolt when explosives charges are detonated at close-in distances.

Jan 1, 1993

By Tim A. Beattie, John R. Grant, David L. Kennedy

After many years of research, ICI staff have developed a numerical modelling system for the study of detonator/primer/explosive configurations. Results from this work clearly identified that current primer designs were not as effective in delivering their energy potential as needed. Alternative designs were evaluated and several prototypes, all essentially spherical in shape, were built for testing. Results have shown a significant improvement in various aspects of primer performance, including omni-directional pressure transferral and increased energy release rates. Reliable, high performance priming of explosives is now achievable for a much wider application range.

Jan 1, 1991

By K A. Broadhurst

Over the years International Standards have produced and are continuing to work on documents related to damage from blasting and human exposure to whole-body mechanical vibration and repeated shock.

Jan 1, 1988

By Lawrence C. K Hu

The release of load mechanism during rock breakage by explosives was founded by Dr. T. N. Hagan & published at the Sixth International Colloquium on Gasdynamics of Explosions and Reactive Systems Stockholm, Sweden, 1977.

Jan 1, 1995

By Paul D. Dupree

This paper discusses the drilling and blasting techniques used in blast casting at a large western coal stripping operation.

Jan 1, 1986

By Charles M. Curtin

A significant advance in nonelectric delay blast initiation has been achieved by Nonel shock tube, an invention patented by Nitro Nobel AB of Gyttorp, Sweden. Ensign Bickford has been licensed by Nitro Nobel to manufacture Nonel in the United States.

Jan 1, 1976

By C Robert Scott

Yes - We have figures on Explosives Manufacturers ! But, on the 500 or 600 explosives contractors, unless you happen to specialize in shooting oil wells, we have no numbers. As you know, the Insurance Industry lives on numbers, the larger the better. They collect the amount of premiums and losses on each line of insurance they write.

Jan 1, 1980

By Gary B. Hemphill

Estimators will agree that estimating for excavation is the most difficult costing task. Equipment costs and production rates are the toughest to determine. The following illustration is a method that can be used for this determination.

Jan 1, 1976

By Paul Downing

While safety and security have always been concerns of the U.S. explosives community, events throughout the world during the past few years have caused us to re-examine our industry’s potential vulnerability and change the way we do business on a day-to-day basis.

Jan 1, 2006

By Michael S. Wieland, Thomas C. Ruhe

Marginal detonation of explosives can produce more toxic fumes with higher nitrogen oxides (NOx) than normal detonation. In delay blasting, shock waves from borehole charge explosions can impact those delayed charges still remaining in the delay pattern. This can result in partial desensitization, whereupon the explosive does not misfire, but detonates in a weak unstable fashion releasing a different/unusual spectrum of gaseous reaction products.

Jan 1, 1991

By Alan R. Cameron, Alastair C. Torrance

An explosives underwater test facility has been established and commissioned in the Hunter Valley, New South Wales, Australia which allows the measurement of the actual shock and gas energies of the explosive

Jan 1, 1990

"Blasting is an inherently destructive process and inflicts damage to the immediateperiphery of an excavation, which is later manifested as ground control and dilutionproblems. Different explosives release their energy and interact with the rock in differentways."

Jan 1, 1993

By Donald J. Westmaas, Fred C. Drury

The Great Lakes Region, in the states of Illinois, Indiana, Michigan and Ohio, uses approximately 14% of the explosives annually consumed in the United States. While materials being blasted differ widely over this geographical area, a basis of comparing practices is proposed and evaluated.

Jan 1, 1979

By Michael J. Sapko, Eric S. Weiss, Richard W. Watson

As part of the Bureau of Mines research into the hazards associated with the mining and processing of oil shale, experimental mine tests have been conducted to evaluate preferred combinations of explosives and inerting materials to prevent ignition of oil shale dust and mixtures of oil shale dust and methane.

Jan 1, 1989

By Eric R. Achelpohl

The paper follows the introduction of a college student into the explosives industry. The opportunity of experiences from classes and work at the University of Missouri-Rolla, along with summer internship experiences are highlighted.

Jan 1, 1998

By Jaak J. K Daemen, Carol Geertson

A portion of a tailings impoundment may need to be removed with the expansion of an open-pit mine in northeastern Nevada. The tailings are saturated and consist of fine silty soil. During the removal of the tailings, they would have no support structure and vibrations induced by blasting in the pit could lead to slope failures.

Jan 1, 1998

By S. P. Singh, Turgut Yalcin

The physical characteristics of blasted rock are fundamental variables affecting the economics of mining operations and are in fact the basis for evaluating the quality of a blast. A study was designed with the objective of quantifying the effect of muck size distribution on scooping operations in a mine.

Jan 1, 2002