Industrial Explosives, Blasting
Major differences between Site Mixed Slurry (SMS) and Site Mixed Emulsion (SME) Explosives
1. SME is in fact a plant made product (emulsion matrix) which need only to be sensitized by entrapment of gas bubbles either by, chemical gassing or addition of substantial quantity of porous ammonium nitrate (AN) prills, to form explosive.
2. SMS is truly a Site Mixed Slurry explosive in the sense that all intermediate ingredients (nearly five) are brought to field in a specially designed Pump Truck and are mixed in a predetermined ratio to form explosive when the mixture gets loaded in the bore hole. None of the ingredients or intermediates are explosives neither any of these can be converted to an explosive easily. (A major safety factor especially in disturbed area where anti-social elements are on lookout for explosives or ingredients of explosives, from any source.)
3. Lowest energy product say, base product, in both SMS and SME has energy of about 640 Kcal/kg. Every one percent addition of Aluminium to a base SMS product increases energy by roughly 40 Kcal/Kg. Thus a SMS product with say 5 percent Aluminium shall have energy of approximately 840 Kcal/kg. In case of Emulsions Explosive, energy increase is normally achieved by addition of AN in prill form. Every one percent addition of AN prill to the base SME product increases energy by roughly 5 Kcal/kg. Thus a SME product with say maximum of 20 percent AN prills (addition of AN prill more than 20% create problem in pumping) shall have energy of approximately 740 Kcal/Kg which is not sufficient to break very hard rocks like massive granite & highly abrasive quartzite existing at Malanjkhand Copper mine.
4. Thus, there is limitation of increasing energy in SME, making it un-suitable for very hard rock conditions whereas substantial energy increase can be achieved in case of SMS to meet the high energy requirement of very hard rock conditions. The SME technology is also not as safe for
1. SME is in fact a plant made product (emulsion matrix) which need only to be sensitized by entrapment of gas bubbles either by, chemical gassing or addition of substantial quantity of porous ammonium nitrate (AN) prills, to form explosive.
2. SMS is truly a Site Mixed Slurry explosive in the sense that all intermediate ingredients (nearly five) are brought to field in a specially designed Pump Truck and are mixed in a predetermined ratio to form explosive when the mixture gets loaded in the bore hole. None of the ingredients or intermediates are explosives neither any of these can be converted to an explosive easily. (A major safety factor especially in disturbed area where anti-social elements are on lookout for explosives or ingredients of explosives, from any source.)
3. Lowest energy product say, base product, in both SMS and SME has energy of about 640 Kcal/kg. Every one percent addition of Aluminium to a base SMS product increases energy by roughly 40 Kcal/Kg. Thus a SMS product with say 5 percent Aluminium shall have energy of approximately 840 Kcal/kg. In case of Emulsions Explosive, energy increase is normally achieved by addition of AN in prill form. Every one percent addition of AN prill to the base SME product increases energy by roughly 5 Kcal/kg. Thus a SME product with say maximum of 20 percent AN prills (addition of AN prill more than 20% create problem in pumping) shall have energy of approximately 740 Kcal/Kg which is not sufficient to break very hard rocks like massive granite & highly abrasive quartzite existing at Malanjkhand Copper mine.
4. Thus, there is limitation of increasing energy in SME, making it un-suitable for very hard rock conditions whereas substantial energy increase can be achieved in case of SMS to meet the high energy requirement of very hard rock conditions. The SME technology is also not as safe for