Nxburst™ is a non-detonating blasting technology used to break rock and concrete. Designed as a safe alternative to traditional explosives, Nxburst™ Rock Breaking Safety Cartridges are used in a wide range of construction, demolition, mining, and quarrying environments. The cartridges do not produce a destructive shock wave like detonating explosives. Instead, Nxburst™ propellant-based cartridges produce a controllable pressure wave that limits airblast overpressure, flyrock, noise, dust, and vibrations. This makes Nxburst™ suitable for breaking rock and concrete in environmentally sensitive areas.
Nxburst™ Rock Breaking Safety Cartridges are much safer to handle, transport, and store than traditional explosives. Unlike detonating explosives, Nxburst™ cartridges pose no significant hazard in their packaged state. Furthermore, the Nxburst™ method of breaking rock and concrete allows a controlled approach to blasting. Below is a list of advantages of using Nxburst™ Safety Cartridges.
Additionally, Nxburst™ Rock Breaking Safety Cartridges only require localized clearance of equipment and personnel instead of compete site evacuation. This means rocks and concrete can be broken in close proximity to working operations. All of these properties give Nxburst™ a huge advantage over traditional blasting technologies, especially in environmentally sensitive areas.
Nxburst™ Safety Cartridges are filled with a propellant compound. Once ignited, a Nxburst™ cartridge produces a high volume of harmless gas, mainly nitrogen, carbon dioxide, and steam. The gas produced fractures the rock or concrete. Unlike conventional explosives that detonate, Nxburst™ Safety Cartridges deflagrate. In other words, the propellant burns steadily at a rate determined by the confining structure. When the cartridge is sealed in a drill hole in a rock, the gas produced from ignition enters micro-fractures in the rock created by drilling. The gas also enters into the natural fractures and areas of weakness of the rock. This initiates shearing, or splitting, of the rock.
Nxburst™ Rock Breaking Safety Cartridges are used in a wide variety of rock breaking applications, including: small boulders, small demolition, armour stone splitting, concrete demolition, medium-large boulders, swimming pools, dimension stone quarrying, sensitive rock breaking, tunnel enlargement, trenching, sensitive excavation, large excavations, mass excavations, large foundation excavation, sensitive civil rock breaking, and underwater rock breaking.
The Nxburst™ cartridge is classified as a 1.4S product under the United Nations (UN) Classification of Hazardous Substances. This is the same category as small arms ammunition. This classification is given to products that do not explode when ignited in their original packaged state. As such, the classification defines Nxburst™ as a non-explosive product for transport and storage purposes. The UN classification system is used by most countries of the world to classify hazardous products according to the danger that each of the products poses while in storage and transport. A UN accredited testing agency tested the Nxburst™ cartridge and subsequently classified it under UN 1.4S as a “Cartridge Power Device.”
Detonation and deflagration are both combustion processes, but they have some important differences. Combustion, or burning, is a process by which energy is released. If the combustion process moves outward at a speed slower than sound, or at subsonic speeds, it’s called a deflagration. A deflagration is a controlled way to release energy. If the combustion moves outward at a speed faster than the speed of sound, or at supersonic speeds, it’s called a detonation. A detonation is accompanied by a shock wave and often produces violent destruction. Nxburst™ Rock Breaking Safety Cartridges harness the power of deflagration to break rock and concrete.
A high explosive burns at a very rapid rate and detonates instantaneously. It produces gaseous and solid products as a result. A low explosive has combustible materials that burn at a slower rate compared to high explosives, producing a large volume of gas. The rate of burning depends on several factors, such as combustion gas pressure, grain size and form, and composition. Low explosives do not normally detonate.
A Nxburst™ Rock Breaking Safety Cartridge is made of six components:
Nxburst™ Rock Breaking Safety Cartridges are simple to use. They do not require expensive initiation systems or special tools. Below is the process for using Nxburst™ Rock Breaking Safety Cartridges.
Once the Nxburst™ cartridge is initiated, the pressure created by the gas will exceed the tensile strength of the rock or concrete, causing the rock to fracture.
