Tovex (also known as Trenchrite, Seismogel, and Seismopac) is a

water-gel explosive A water-gel explosive is a fuel sensitized explosive mixture consisting of an aqueous ammonium nitrate solution that acts as the oxidizer. Water gels that are Blasting cap, cap-insensitive are referred to under United States safety regulations as ...

composed of

ammonium nitrate Ammonium nitrate is a chemical compound with the chemical formula . It is a white crystalline salt consisting of ions of ammonium and nitrate. It is highly soluble in water and hygroscopic as a solid, although it does not form hydrates. It is ...

and

methylammonium nitrate Methylammonium nitrate is an explosive chemical with the molecular formula CH6N2O3, alternately CH3NH3+NO3−. It is the salt formed by the neutralization of methylamine with nitric acid. This substance is also known as methylamine nitrate and mon ...

that has several advantages over traditional

dynamite Dynamite is an explosive made of nitroglycerin, sorbents (such as powdered shells or clay), and Stabilizer (chemistry), stabilizers. It was invented by the Swedish people, Swedish chemist and engineer Alfred Nobel in Geesthacht, Northern Germa ...

, including lower toxicity and safer manufacture, transport, and storage. It has thus almost entirely replaced

. There are numerous versions ranging from

shearing Sheep shearing is the process by which the woollen fleece of a sheep is cut off. The person who removes the sheep's wool is called a '' shearer''. Typically each adult sheep is shorn once each year (a sheep may be said to have been "shorn" or ...

charges to

aluminized Aluminium (aluminum in American and Canadian English) is a chemical element with the symbol Al and atomic number 13. Aluminium has a density lower than those of other common metals, at approximately one third that of steel. It ...

common blasting agents. Tovex is used by 80% of international

oil An oil is any nonpolar chemical substance that is composed primarily of hydrocarbons and is hydrophobic (does not mix with water) & lipophilic (mixes with other oils). Oils are usually flammable and surface active. Most oils are unsaturated ...

companies A company, abbreviated as co., is a legal entity representing an association of people, whether natural, legal or a mixture of both, with a specific objective. Company members share a common purpose and unite to achieve specific, declared go ...

for

seismic exploration Reflection seismology (or seismic reflection) is a method of exploration geophysics that uses the principles of seismology to estimate the properties of the Earth's subsurface from reflected seismic waves. The method requires a controlled seismi ...

History

The Tovex family of products, sometimes generically called "water gels," were developed by the Explosives Department at

DuPont DuPont de Nemours, Inc., commonly shortened to DuPont, is an American multinational chemical company first formed in 1802 by French-American chemist and industrialist Éleuthère Irénée du Pont de Nemours. The company played a major role in ...

(E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Company, Inc.) in the mid-to-late 1960s when pelletized

TNT Trinitrotoluene (), more commonly known as TNT, more specifically 2,4,6-trinitrotoluene, and by its preferred IUPAC name 2-methyl-1,3,5-trinitrobenzene, is a chemical compound with the formula C6H2(NO2)3CH3. TNT is occasionally used as a reagen ...

was included in aqueous gels to create a slurry form of

ANFO ANFO ( ) (or AN/FO, for ammonium nitrate/fuel oil) is a widely used bulk industrial explosive. It consists of 94% porous prilled ammonium nitrate (NH4NO3) (AN), which acts as the oxidizing agent and absorbent for the fuel, and 6% number 2 fue ...

that displayed water-resistant properties in wet bore holes. TNT-sensitized water gels were commercially successful, but the TNT led to problems with oxygen balance: namely elevated amounts of combustion by-products such as carbon monoxide and nitrogen-dioxide complexes. Not only was TNT "dirty," it was also expensive. TNT was eliminated through the work of DuPont chemists Colin Dunglinson, Joseph Dean Chrisp Sr. and William Lyerly along with a team of others at DuPont's Potomac River Development Laboratory (PRDL) at Falling Waters, West Virginia, and at DuPont's Eastern Laboratories (EL) at Gibbstown, New Jersey. These chemists and engineers formulated a series of water gel-base products that replaced the TNT with methyl ammonium nitrate, also known as monomethylamine nitrate, or PR-M, (which stands for "Potomac River – monomethylamine nitrate"), creating the "Tovex Extra" product line. In late 1973, DuPont declared "the last days of dynamite" and switched to the new Tovex formula. The "Tovex" (that replaced nitroglycerin-based dynamite) had evolved into a cap-sensitive product. Even though it bore the same name as the earlier "Tovex," it was quite different from the precursors, which could only be initiated in large diameters (5 inches) with a one pound TNT booster. The new Tovex of the mid-to-late 1970s could be detonated in (critical) diameters much smaller than 5-inches by utilizing DuPont's Detaflex, thus making the new Tovex a realistic replacement for dynamite. Until then, only nitroglycerin-based explosives were commercially feasible for blasters who wanted cap-sensitive explosives that could be initiated with a #6

blasting cap A detonator, frequently a blasting cap, is a device used to trigger an explosive device. Detonators can be chemically, mechanically, or electrically initiated, the last two being the most common. The commercial use of explosives uses electri ...

in bore holes as small as 3/4 of an inch in diameter, sometimes less. The new Tovex satisfied that requirement. Atlas, Hercules, IRECO, Trojan-US Powder and several other explosives manufacturing firms of the era created emulsions, gels and slurries which accomplished the same end, but it was the DuPont patent of PR-M based explosives () that gave the DuPont Company a competitive edge. DuPont stopped producing nitroglycerine-based dynamite in 1976, replacing it with Tovex. In 1980, it sold its Tovex technology to Explosive Technology International (ETI), a Canadian company. One ETI licensee is Biafo Industries Limited, headquartered in

Islamabad Islamabad (; ur, , ) is the capital city of Pakistan. It is the country's ninth-most populous city, with a population of over 1.2 million people, and is federally administered by the Pakistani government as part of the Islamabad Capital T ...

, Pakistan. , explosives sold under DuPont's original "Tovex" trade name are distributed in

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a Continent#Subcontinents, subcontinent of Eurasia ...

by Societe Suisse des Explosifs, Brigue, in Switzerland.

Properties

Tovex is a 50/50

aqueous solution An aqueous solution is a solution in which the solvent is water. It is mostly shown in chemical equations by appending (aq) to the relevant chemical formula. For example, a solution of table salt, or sodium chloride (NaCl), in water would be re ...

and

(sometimes also called monomethylamine nitrate, or PR-M), sensitized

fuel A fuel is any material that can be made to react with other substances so that it releases energy as thermal energy or to be used for work. The concept was originally applied solely to those materials capable of releasing chemical energy but ...

s, and other ingredients including sodium nitrate prills, finely divided (paint-grade) aluminum, finely divided coal, proprietary materials to make some grades

cap A cap is a flat headgear, usually with a visor. Caps have crowns that fit very close to the head. They made their first appearance as early as 3200 BC. Caps typically have a visor, or no brim at all. They are popular in casual and informal se ...

sensitive, and

thickening agent A thickening agent or thickener is a substance which can increase the viscosity of a liquid without substantially changing its other properties. Edible thickeners are commonly used to thicken sauces, soups, and puddings without altering their t ...

s to enhance water resistance and to act as crystal modifiers. The

detonation velocity Explosive velocity, also known as detonation velocity or velocity of detonation (VoD), is the velocity at which the shock wave front travels through a detonated explosive. Explosive velocities are always faster than the local speed of sound in the ...

of Tovex is around 4,000 to 5,500 m·s⁻¹. The

specific gravity Relative density, or specific gravity, is the ratio of the density (mass of a unit volume) of a substance to the density of a given reference material. Specific gravity for liquids is nearly always measured with respect to water (molecule), wa ...

is 0.8–1.4. Tovex looks like a fluid gel which can be white to black in color.MSDS
.

Ingredients

sodium nitrate Sodium nitrate is the chemical compound with the formula . This alkali metal nitrate salt is also known as Chile saltpeter (large deposits of which were historically mined in Chile) to distinguish it from ordinary saltpeter, potassium nitrate. T ...

methyl ammonium nitrate Methylammonium nitrate is an explosive chemical with the molecular formula CH6N2O3, alternately CH3NH3+NO3−. It is the salt formed by the neutralization of methylamine with nitric acid. This substance is also known as methylamine nitrate and mo ...

(sometimes called "Monomethylamine Nitrate") *

calcium nitrate Calcium nitrate, also called ''Norgessalpeter'' (Norwegian salpeter), is an inorganic compound with the formula Ca(NO3)2(H2O)x. The anhydrous compound, which is rarely encountered, absorbs moisture from the air to give the tetrahydrate. Both anhyd ...

aluminum Aluminium (aluminum in American and Canadian English) is a chemical element with the symbol Al and atomic number 13. Aluminium has a density lower than those of other common metals, at approximately one third that of steel. It has ...

fuel oil Fuel oil is any of various fractions obtained from the distillation of petroleum (crude oil). Such oils include distillates (the lighter fractions) and residues (the heavier fractions). Fuel oils include heavy fuel oil, marine fuel oil (MFO), bun ...

No.2 *

carbon Carbon () is a chemical element with the symbol C and atomic number 6. It is nonmetallic and tetravalent In chemistry, the valence (US spelling) or valency (British spelling) of an element is the measure of its combining capacity with o ...

aceous fuel *

perlite Perlite is an amorphous volcanic glass that has a relatively high water content, typically formed by the hydration of obsidian. It occurs naturally and has the unusual property of greatly expanding when heated sufficiently. It is an industrial m ...

silica Silicon dioxide, also known as silica, is an oxide of silicon with the chemical formula , most commonly found in nature as quartz and in various living organisms. In many parts of the world, silica is the major constituent of sand. Silica is one ...

(fibrous glass) *

ethylene glycol Ethylene glycol (IUPAC name: ethane-1,2-diol) is an organic compound (a vicinal diol) with the formula . It is mainly used for two purposes, as a raw material in the manufacture of polyester fibers and for antifreeze formulations. It is an odo ...

guar gum Guar gum, also called guaran, is a galactomannan polysaccharide extracted from guar beans that has thickening and stabilizing properties useful in food, feed, and industrial applications. The guar seeds are mechanically dehusked, hydrated, mil ...

Uses

avalanche control Avalanche control or avalanche defense activities reduce the hazard avalanches pose to human life, activity, and property.blasting for

road construction A road is a linear way for the conveyance of traffic that mostly has an improved surface for use by vehicles (motorized and non-motorized) and pedestrians. Unlike streets, the main function of roads is transportation. There are many types of ...

mining Mining is the extraction of valuable minerals or other geological materials from the Earth, usually from an ore body, lode, vein, seam, reef, or placer deposit. The exploitation of these deposits for raw material is based on the economic via ...

for

mineral In geology and mineralogy, a mineral or mineral species is, broadly speaking, a solid chemical compound with a fairly well-defined chemical composition and a specific crystal structure that occurs naturally in pure form.John P. Rafferty, ed. ( ...

s *

quarrying A quarry is a type of open-pit mine in which dimension stone, rock, construction aggregate, riprap, sand, gravel, or slate is excavated from the ground. The operation of quarries is regulated in some jurisdictions to reduce their environ ...

for the

construction Construction is a general term meaning the art and science to form objects, systems, or organizations,"Construction" def. 1.a. 1.b. and 1.c. ''Oxford English Dictionary'' Second Edition on CD-ROM (v. 4.0) Oxford University Press 2009 and com ...

and

building industry Construction is a general term meaning the art and science to form objects, systems, or organizations,"Construction" def. 1.a. 1.b. and 1.c. ''Oxford English Dictionary'' Second Edition on CD-ROM (v. 4.0) Oxford University Press 2009 and com ...

tunnel A tunnel is an underground passageway, dug through surrounding soil, earth or rock, and enclosed except for the entrance and exit, commonly at each end. A pipeline is not a tunnel, though some recent tunnels have used immersed tube cons ...

ing *

improvised explosive device An improvised explosive device (IED) is a bomb constructed and deployed in ways other than in conventional military action. It may be constructed of conventional military explosives, such as an artillery shell, attached to a detonating mechan ...

s
hiking trail building
* cutting fire lines * hazardous tree removal

Sample applications

The blasting product is malleable to the extent that it can be cut to length, laid out, or bundled for a wide variety of applications. Because the material requires heat and fast compression to detonate, it is safe to transport and manipulate once in the field, even if dropped from high altitudes, set on fire, or peppered with high velocity rifle bullets. For dead trees which are considered too hazardous to remove utilizing

crosscut saw A crosscut saw (thwart saw) is any saw designed for cutting wood perpendicular to (across) the wood grain. Crosscut saws may be small or large, with small teeth close together for fine work like woodworking or large for coarse work like log b ...

s or

chainsaws A chainsaw (or chain saw) is a portable gasoline-, electric-, or battery-powered saw that cuts with a set of teeth attached to a rotating chain driven along a guide bar. It is used in activities such as tree felling, limbing, bucking, pruning, ...

, one or two wraps of Tovex around the base of the trunk is often enough to fell the tree safely so that the remains may be safely bucked and removed from hiking trails, parks, or other places where people recreate. For firebreaks, the product is simply uncoiled and laid along the ground to follow the ridge line or contours of the hillside or mountain along which the fire crews wish to establish a line of defense. Fire crews then follow-up by clearing debris along the blasted line to establish a fuel-free line. For more technical blasting which requires greater planning and finesse, Tovex is often bundled according to weight into or up against a solid material, then a detonation cord is applied to the Tovex to create a fast moving, heated dynamo effect within the Tovex when one or more blasting caps ignite the detonation cord, thus accelerating the Tovex, which causes it to detonate. Blasting caps are ignited utilizing hand-held control boxes which employ a series of safety interlocks and switches which require a strict radio sessioning handshake protocol between the unit which ignites the cap and the unit used by the Master Blaster controlling the shot, designed to prevent the emplaced Tovex, detonation cord, and caps from igniting prematurely. After detonation, the material is completely utilized; there is no discernible residue, unless one employs microscopic analysis. Typically, Tovex and other commercial explosives employ embedded

taggant A taggant is any chemical or physical marker added to materials to allow various forms of testing. Physical taggants can take many different forms but are typically microscopic in size, included at low levels, and simple to detect. They can be u ...

s which identify the product and often the agency which purchased the material.

Features

sensitive * wide range of

bore hole A borehole is a narrow shaft bored in the ground, either vertically or horizontally. A borehole may be constructed for many different purposes, including the extraction of water ( drilled water well and tube well), other liquids (such as petrol ...

densities Density (volumetric mass density or specific mass) is the substance's mass per unit of volume. The symbol most often used for density is ''ρ'' (the lower case Greek language, Greek letter Rho (letter), rho), although the Latin letter ''D'' ca ...

* improved flexibility in loading * water-resistance * no

nitroglycerin Nitroglycerin (NG), (alternative spelling of nitroglycerine) also known as trinitroglycerin (TNG), nitro, glyceryl trinitrate (GTN), or 1,2,3-trinitroxypropane, is a dense, colorless, oily, explosive liquid most commonly produced by nitrating g ...

and noxious fumes * reduced handling, transportation and storage hazards * high bubble energy (

underwater explosion An underwater explosion (also known as an UNDEX) is a chemical or nuclear explosion that occurs under the surface of a body of water. While useful in anti-ship and submarine warfare, underwater bombs are not as effective against coastal facilities. ...

) * reduced sound levels and better control on

vibration Vibration is a mechanical phenomenon whereby oscillations occur about an equilibrium point. The word comes from Latin ''vibrationem'' ("shaking, brandishing"). The oscillations may be periodic function, periodic, such as the motion of a pendulum ...

References

{{reflist

External links

Biafo Industries Ltd – Tovex Explosive

Blasting Upper Bear Creek Trail

Bear Divide Hotshots

San Gabriel Mountains Trailbuilders
Explosives