Chemical Marking of Explosives to Improve the Safety of Blasting Operations

Abstract

The article is devoted to the development of a marking composition for industrial explosives to improve the safety of blasting. Polymethylsiloxane liquids of PMS-10 and PMX-200 grades were chosen as a marker-identifier of industrial explosives, which can be identified even after the explosion by residual fragments of soil or other materials from the epicenter of the explosion. Polymethylsiloxane fluids are very heat-resistant, the combustion process takes place with great difficulty, they are little affected by the aquatic environment, most chemical and physical factors that destroy ordinary organic materials. The experiments were carried out to determine the physicochemical parameters of polymethylsiloxane liquids PMS-10 and PMX-200. Based on these results, the polymethylsiloxane liquid PMX-200 with linear chains was chosen as a marking additive in the composition of explosives. It is able to withstand a higher-temperature effect than the PMS-10 polymethylsigsane fluid, and will be less disintegrate, and interact with the products of the explosion. The SIM-K marker, made on the basis of polymethylsiloxane liquid PMX-200, was developed, which allows to visualize the explosive and determine the required identification information. At the technological plant of Orika-Kazakhstan JSC, without disturbing the technological process, a marking composition was introduced into the ANFO explosive by drop spraying. Field tests of the ANFO explosive with a marking composition based on PMX-200 polymethylsiloxane liquid were carried out. The technology was tested related to introduction of marking additives into the compositions of multicomponent explosives without violating the technological process of their manufacture.