Explosive composition

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10081579-B2
Application number	US-201214365900-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Dec 13, 2012
Priority date	Dec 16, 2011
Publication date	Sep 25, 2018
Grant date	Sep 25, 2018

Abstract

An explosive composition comprising a liquid energetic material and sensitizing voids, wherein the sensitizing voids are present in the liquid energetic material with a non-random distribution, wherein the liquid energetic material comprises (a) regions in which the sensitizing voids are sufficiently concentrated to render those regions detonable and (b) regions in which the sensitizing voids are not so concentrated and wherein the explosive composition does not contain ammonium nitrate prill.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. An explosive composition comprising:
a liquid energetic material; and
at least one of gas bubbles or micro-balloons,
wherein the at least one of gas bubbles or micro-balloons are present in the liquid energetic material with a non-random distribution, wherein the explosive composition comprises (a) regions in which the at least one of gas bubbles or micro-balloons are sufficiently concentrated to sensitize those regions and render those regions detonable and (b) regions in which the at least one of gas bubbles or micro-balloons are not so concentrated, wherein the explosive composition detonates with a minimum velocity of detonation of 2000 m/s, wherein the explosive composition does not contain any solid oxidizer component.

2. The explosive composition of claim 1 , wherein the liquid energetic material is a first liquid energetic material, the explosive composition further comprising a second liquid energetic material, wherein the first liquid energetic material is sensitized with at least one of sufficient gas bubbles or micro-balloons to render it detonable and wherein the second liquid energetic material has different detonation characteristics from the first liquid energetic material.

3. The explosive composition of claim 1 , wherein the liquid energetic material is in the form of an emulsion explosive.

4. The explosive composition of claim 1 , wherein an average diameter of the at least one of gas bubbles or micro-balloons is 20 μm to 5 mm.

5. The explosive composition of claim 1 , wherein a density and a velocity of detonation (VOD) of the explosive composition are consistent with at least one of an ammonium nitrate/fuel oil (ANFO) explosive product or an ammonium nitrate (AN) prill based explosive product.

6. A method of blasting comprising detonating an explosive composition as claimed in claim 1 .

7. The explosive composition of claim 1 , wherein the regions in which the at least one of gas bubbles or micro-balloons are not so concentrated are non-detonable.

8. The explosive composition of claim 1 , wherein the regions in which the at least one of gas bubbles or micro-balloons are not so concentrated are detonable.

9. The explosive composition of claim 1 , wherein the non-random distribution of the at least one of gas bubbles or micro-balloons in the liquid energetic material comprises clusters, each cluster comprising a deliberate grouped arrangement of the at least one of gas bubbles or micro-balloons.

10. The explosive composition of claim 2 , provided as a single formulation comprising the first liquid energetic material blended with the second liquid energetic material.

11. The explosive composition of claim 1 , wherein the liquid energetic material is a first liquid energetic material, the explosive composition further comprising:
a second liquid energetic material having a different detonation sensitivity than the first liquid energetic material, the first liquid energetic material and the second liquid energetic material each being an emulsion such that the explosive composition is a mixture of emulsions.

12. The explosive composition of claim 11 , wherein the second explosive composition is unsensitized.

13. The explosive composition of claim 11 , wherein the second explosive composition is gas sensitized.

14. The explosive composition of claim 11 , wherein the first explosive composition is present as droplets separated from one another by intervening regions of the second explosive composition.

15. The explosive composition of claim 1 , wherein the liquid energetic material is an emulsion-only based composition.

16. The explosive composition of claim 15 , wherein a VOD and a density of the explosive composition respectively match a VOD and a density of an AN solid component based explosive product.

17. The explosive composition of claim 4 , wherein the average diameter of the at least one of gas bubbles or micro-balloons is 20-500 μm.

18. The explosive composition of claim 17 , wherein the average diameter of the at least one of gas bubbles or micro-balloons is 20-100 μm.

19. The explosive composition of claim 1 , wherein the explosive composition does not contain a solid component comprising ammonium nitrate.

20. The explosive composition of claim 1 , wherein the explosive composition detonates with a velocity of detonation of from 2000 to 6000 m/s.

21. An explosive composition comprising:
a liquid energetic material; and
at least one of gas bubbles or micro-balloons,
wherein the at least one of gas bubbles or micro-balloons are present in the liquid energetic material with a non-random distribution, wherein the liquid energetic material comprises (a) regions in which the at least one of gas bubbles or micro-balloons are sufficiently concentrated to sensitize those regions and render those regions detonable and (b) regions in which the at least one of gas bubbles or micro-balloons are not so concentrated, wherein the explosive composition detonates with a minimum velocity of detonation of 2000 m/s.

22. An explosive composition comprising:
a first liquid energetic material;
at least one of gas bubbles or micro-balloons disposed within and sensitizing the first liquid energetic material; and
a second liquid energetic material,
the first liquid energetic material, the second liquid energetic material, and the at least one of gas bubbles or micro-balloons provided as a single liquid formulation, the explosive composition having regions of the first liquid energetic material and regions of the second liquid energetic material such that the at least one of gas bubbles or micro-balloons present in the explosive composition with a non-random distribution, wherein the explosive composition comprises (a) regions in which the at least one of gas bubbles or micro-balloons are sufficiently concentrated to sensitize those regions and render those regions detonable and (b) regions in which the at least one of gas bubbles or micro-balloons are not so concentrated.

23. The explosive composition of claim 1 , wherein the at least one of gas bubbles or micro-balloons are gas bubbles.

24. The explosive composition of claim 1 , wherein the at least one of gas bubbles or micro-balloons are microballoons.

Assignees

• Orica Int Pte Ltd

Inventors

• Cooper John
• Kirby Ian John
• Goodridge Richard
• Sujansky Vladimir
• Ferguson Simon James

Classifications

• C06B23/004

  Chemical sensitisers · CPC title

• C06B45/00 Primary

  Compositions or products which are defined by structure or arrangement of component of product (explosive charges of particular form or shape F42B1/00, F42B3/00) · CPC title

• C06B23/003

  Porous or hollow inert particles (preparation C06B21/0091) · CPC title

• C06B31/285

  with fuel oil, e.g. ANFO-compositions · CPC title

• F42D1/00

  Blasting methods or apparatus, e.g. loading or tamping · CPC title