Electronic blasting and blast management

F.Hammelmann
Technical Service Field Support, Orica Germany GmbH

P.Reinders
R &D Electronic Blasting Systems, Orica Germany GmbH

ABSTRACT: Since blasting was introduced in mining as part of the production process, blasting technology
and blast management have been interconnected. Over the past decades Orica Explosives has gained experience with electronic blasting systems in mining, quarrying and construction. In the beginning the primary focus of electronic blasting was to increase the timing accuracy. Over time the technology gradually developed
and opened up new possibilities such as flexibility in blast design and full function verification. Furthermore,
modern electronic blasting systems are designed to allow easy two-way transfer of information between the
office based blast management software suite and field equipment. Blast management systems comprise a
suite of expert systems for planning, documentation, analysis, measurement and prediction of blasts. The blast
design software SHOTPlus-i is an integral part of Oricas blast management suite, which allows to transfer
blast design information to the hardware of the electronic blasting system. This paper briefly describes the
history of blast management. In the following a modern blast management suite is presented, which provides
a link between the electronic blasting system and the blast design software. Finally an outlook gives an impression of tomorrows integrated blast management systems.
1 BLAST MANAGEMENT IN CHANGE OF
TIME
In the 12th century the use and manufacture of black
powder was developed in China. But it took more
then 200 years, before black powder was introduced
in blasting for civil purposes in Europe by Bertold
Schwartz.
The first civil blast in an underground ore operation - documented by Casper Weindel - took place in
the German Harz mountains in 1627 (Petzold et al.
2000a).

Figure 1. First documented blast in underground mining.

Since mining activities always have been - and

still are - a time and cost intensive business, accurate

planning and engineering have been important form

the very beginning of civil blasting. Blasting technology as part of the production process and the
evaluation of blast performance has therefore been a
key interest of mine operators to improve cost efficiency of the operations.
The first blast management tools were developed
to evaluate the basic geometric parameters of
benches or stopes before and after blasting.
Drilling and blasting parameters were controlled
by the use of plumb and scale, a method which is
still commonly found in surface production blasts
nowadays. The capability to measure geometric parameters was the basis for an improved engineering
and blast management. The first measuring technologies made use of gravity, position of sun and
stars and the magnetic field of the earth.

Figure 2. Early days of blast management .

The next generation of optical tools was developed to enable engineers to measure distances (e.g.
burden and spacing). These new tools allowed to
transfer a reference scale to any place in the blast
site. The next important step was the development of
precision tools for measuring distances and angles
and the ability to calculate other distances and angles on basis of the measurement results.

programs can be considered as the standard tools in

a blast management suite.
Furthermore such a suite may comprise different
programs for surveying, cost calculations, equipment
planning, vibration modelling or for distinct modelling of muckpile displacements, etc.. The different
software tools typically require dedicated databases,
even though the input parameters are in many cases
essentially the same. The missing common platform
for the software tools makes the mine planning
process very complicated, duplicating work at many
stages of the product cycle. In top only highly
skilled specialists can apply the software tools.
Figure 4 shows the standard programs (PowerSieve, Sabrex, SHOTPlus-i) of Oricas blast management suite and the interconnection to the electronic initiation system i-konTM .
Electronic blast design

Electronic initiation
Prediction

Fragmentation analysis

Figure 4. Oricas standard blast management suite for an electronic blasting system.

Figure 3. Optical tool for trigonometrical measurements.

Today sophisticated measuring tools based on

different measuring principles (magnetic-field, optical scale, gravity, laser profiling, etc.) and dedicated software programs are available for planning
and control in mining industry.
2 ELECTRONIC BLASTING AND BLAST
MANAGEMENT
The standard software tools in a blast management
suite are programs for fragmentation analysis, for
blast performance prediction and for initiation design. The later can also be part of the prediction
software. A variety of such programs all with different capabilities are available in the market. These

After blasting the fragmentation analysis results

can be used for a calibration of the prediction model.
Input parameters are type of explosives, initiation
system, the rock mechanical characteristics of the
ground, hole length and diameter, burden and spacing, the delay timing, etc.. Over the time and with
continuous calibration of the prediction model the
quality of the prediction - like fragmentation, heave,
shape of wall - becomes more realistic. The results
of the prediction model can then be used for optimising the blast design of the electronic blasting system.
The input parameters of Oricas standard tools share
the same data bases, so that the time and work required for carrying out an analysis is minimised. The
blast design software SHOTPlus-i provides the link
to the digital blasting system i-kon.
SHOTPlus-i has been specifically designed for
use with the hardware components of the electronic
blasting system. These are: the digital detonator, the
Logger for logging, testing and programming the
detonators and the Blaster for firing the detonators
(Petzold et al. 2000b).

Figure 7 shows an example of a blast design on basis

of an import of mine data.

Blaster400
Detonator

Logger

Blaster1600S
Blaster

Figure 5. Hardware of the i-kon Digital Energy Control System.

Figure 7. Blast design on basis of mine data.

SHOTPlus-i provides a simple and convenient

way to design a blast, to carry out some basic design
analysis and to create pre- and post-blast reports.
The software is available in two different versions:
SHOTPlus-i surface, for use in surface applications
and SHOTPlus-i underground, for use in underground applications.
The application interface in the surface version
consists of a top line main menu, a series of tool buttons on the left hand panel and a bottom status line.
The button tools are grouped according to their functions:
Viewing
Drawing
Measuring distances
Blast design (explosives, primers, stemming,
hole length, diameter, angle, pattern, numbering or names, harness wire)
i-kon detonator delay time design
logging sequence.

Figure 6. SHOTPlus-i Surface: application interface and visualisation of blast sequence.

The resulting blast design is shown in plan view,

but does contain X,Y and Z coordinate information.
The software also allows to import text file data in
either the standard DXF (AutoCAD) format or from
a file formatted with columns of data. Apart from
the pattern and hole information this includes also
the mine specific numbering/names of the holes.

Each blast hole in the design can be edited to

show the specific design parameters.

Figure 8. Design parameters for a single blast hole.

The main menu contains standard menu items

found in most applications for managing files. Furthermore the software contains a Quick menu for the
common actions, a View menu for managing the information currently displayed, a Calculations menu
for evaluating the blast design and a Tools menu for
selecting less common tasks.
The calculations menu allows simple initiation
calculations to be performed on the blast design. Entering a calculation mode will display the results
within the edit window:
The visualise command shows a representation
of the firing sequence of the detonators at different display speeds (Figs. 6, 9).
The first movement displays a representation of
the direction of first movement of material
based on the hole firing times.
The burden relief gives the amount of time delay per metre of burden across the blast.
The angle of initiation shows the timing contours.
The time envelope shows the hole deck firing
times and allows to check the amount of explosives per delay time.
The quantities calculation displays the number
of detonators, the amount of harness wire, and
the amount of explosives consumed in the
blast.

 Logger data enables the download of the design

to the equipment and the post-blast upload to
the design file.
The underground version allows planning and
viewing a blast design in three dimensions. The application interface with the available menus and
tools is essentially the same as in the surface version.

time for logging of the detonators is considerably

reduced, because the delay time must not be entered
manually at the hole. The logging process only
serves to register the unique names of the detonators,
when SHOTPlus-i is used. As a result the operation
speed is comparable to a tie up with non electric
detonators.
3 BLAST MANAGEMENT SUITE OF THE
FUTURE

Figure 9. SHOTPlus-i underground: application interface and

visualisation of blast sequence.

After a blast has been designed, the design information for the electronic blasting system, like the
name of the row, hole numbers and detonator delay
times in the holes is downloaded into the Logger.

Pre-blast
download

Todays blast management suites are typically missing a common platform that allows an easy transfer
of input and output parameters to other tools of the
suite of programs. As a result the work involved during blast management is often more time consuming
then necessary and the planning process inefficient.
However, Orica has addressed these limitations and
is currently building an integrative blast management suite, which increases the efficiency of the
blast management process.
If the overall planning process of a product life cycle
in a mine is considered, the same problems are encountered. Many different expert tools require different databases. In many cases this implies that the
work involved during the planning process is duplicated and becomes more complicated then necessary. An easy way for a transfer of analysis results
from one step in the planning process to the subsequent step is often not possible.
In the future all the information and the whole engineering during the planning process will be covered
by an integrative mining software suite that shares
the same data platform. The output of the first expert
tool used in the mine planning process can then be
used as an input for the next tool in the planning
process. All the different data bases (geological and
rock mechanical characteristics of mineral and
ground, explosives, mining equipment, cost calculations, ...) could be used from a common platform,
which supports the whole planning process. This
would significantly improve the overall efficiency of
the planning process.

Post-blast
upload

REFERENCES
Figure 10. Download and upload of data to electronic blast
equipment.

On the bench or underground the detonators must

be logged in the designed sequence with the Logger.
To allow for the required flexibility on the bench,
the Logger enables to add detonators or holes that
were not considered in the design, or to leave out designed detonators or blast holes, in case detonators
are missing or holes are not drilled. The required

Petzold, J. & Hammelmann, F. 2000a. Zndtechnik im Wandel

der Zeit. Nobelhefte. Heft 2000: 1-17
Petzold, J. & Hammelmann, F. 2000b. The second generation
of electronic blasting systems. In Holmberg, R. (ed), Proceedings of the 1 st World Conference on Explosive & Blasting Technique, Munich, Germany, Sept.6-8, 2000: 159-164.
Rotterdam: Balkema.