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Explosives and Blasting Technique, Holmberg (ed.)

© 2003 Swets & Zeitlinger, Lisse, ISBN 90 5809 605 X

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, mod-
ern 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 Orica’s 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 opera-
tion – 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 technol-
ogy as part of the production process and the evalua-
tion 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 nowa-
days. 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 mag-
netic field of the earth.
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

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Figure 2. Early days of blast management.
Figure 3. Optical tool for trigonometrical measurements.
calculate other distances and angles on basis of the
measurement results.
Today sophisticated measuring tools – based on
different measuring principles (magnetic-field, opti-
cal scale, gravity, laser profiling, etc.) – and dedicated
software programs are available for planning and con-
trol 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 differ-
ent capabilities are available in the market. These pro-
grams 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
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Copyright © 2003 Swets & Zeitlinger B.V., Lisse, The Netherlands
Figure 4. Orica’s standard blast management suite for an
electronic blasting system.
of muckpile displacements, etc.. The different soft-
ware tools typically require dedicated databases, even
though the input parameters are in many cases essen-
tially 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 (Power-
Sieve®, Sabrex, SHOTPlus®-i) of Orica’s blast man-
agement suite and the interconnection to the electronic
initiation system i-konTM.
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 predic-
tion model can then be used for optimising the blast
design of the electronic blasting system. The input
parameters of Orica’s standard tools share the same
data bases, so that the time and work required for car-
rying 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 det-
onators and the Blaster for firing the detonators
(Petzold et al. 2000b).
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 under-
ground applications.
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Figure 5. Hardware of the i-kon™ Digital Energy Control
System.
Figure 6. SHOTPlus®-i Surface: application interface and
visualisation of blast sequence.
The application interface in the surface version
consists of a top line main menu, a series of tool but-
tons on the left hand panel and a bottom status line.
The button tools are grouped according to their func-
tions:
• 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.
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. Figure 7
shows an example of a blast design on basis of an
import of mine data.
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Copyright © 2003 Swets & Zeitlinger B.V., Lisse, The Netherlands
Figure 7. Blast design on basis of mine data.
Figure 8. Design parameters for a single blast hole.
Each blast hole in the design can be edited to show
the specific design parameters.
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 cal-
culations 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.
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Figure 9. SHOTPlus®-i underground: application interface
and visualisation of blast sequence.
Figure 10. Download and upload of data to electronic blast
equipment.
• 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 appli-
cation interface with the available menus and tools is
essentially the same as in the surface version.
After a blast has been designed, the design infor-
mation 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.
On the bench or underground the detonators must
be logged in the designed sequence with the Logger.
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Copyright © 2003 Swets & Zeitlinger B.V., Lisse, The Netherlands
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 miss-
ing or holes are not drilled. The required time for log-
ging of the detonators is considerably reduced,
because the delay time must not be entered manually
at the hole. The logging process only serves to regis-
ter 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
Today’s blast management suites are typically miss-
ing 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 man-
agement process.
If the overall planning process of a product life cycle
in a mine is considered, the same problems are encoun-
tered. Many different expert tools require different data-
bases. 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 engi-
neering 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 mechani-
cal 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.
REFERENCES
Petzold, J. & Hammelmann, F. 2000a. Zündtechnik 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 1st World Conference on Explosive &
Blasting Technique, Munich, Germany, Sept.6–8, 2000:
159–164. Rotterdam: Balkema.