Emulsion Explosives

Zukovich, Morhard & Wade, LLC (ZMW) is a design engineering firm that specializes in projects involving explosive, propellants and pyrotechnics with extensive experiences in explosive and detonator manufacturing in the US and in more than 70 countries world-wide. ZMW provides technical services for most of the world's multinational industrial explosives manufacturers.

Throughout our individual careers, ZMW partners each have 35 + years formulating, manufacturing, handling and blasting with packaged detonator sensitive and booster sensitive as well as bulk emulsion explosives. Our emulsion explosive technology spans many individualized formulations and can be especially adapted to local blasting requirements and raw materials availability.

World Class Qualifications

Design, permitting, regulatory compliance, public affairs, fabrication, commissioning, maintenance and technical support for forty-four (44) new or upgraded emulsion explosives manufacturing facilities over the careers of the ZMW Principal Partners.

Our partners US Patents form the basis for almost a third of the world’s nine million tons consumed each year.

Chosen by the US Government’s Defense Threat Reduction Agency and Alliant TechSystems, Inc. to solve technical problem of recycling former Soviet Union SS-24 and SS-19 ICBM propellant into emulsion explosives in Ukraine.

Provides technical services for manufacturing and safety for eight of the top ten multinational explosives producers and the top three largest multinational mining companies.

This electron microscope photograph was captured 13 March 2009 at the Changsha Institute of Mining and Metallurgy, in Hunan Province, China. This outstanding photograph is an example of the advanced ZMW emulsion explosives technology t hat results in an ultra small and evenly distributed emulsion droplet. With droplets ranging from 960 nanometers to 3.44 micrometer this emulsion matrix contains a very efficient and intimate arrangement of fuels and oxidizers, assuring a high quality detonation and a long shelf life with no segregation. The emulsion matrix was produced with a ZMW formulation for underground coal mining or permissible explosive fabricated with ZMW designed equipment at the Changzhi Production Plant in Shanxi Province supported by Gang Ming and the excellent staff and engineers at Shenzhen King Explorer Science and Technology.

• Velocity of Detonation 13,000 ft/s (4,000 m/s) to over 17,700 ft/s (5,400 m/s)

• Bulk Density 1.15 to 1.25 g/cc

• Relative Bulk Strength 120 – 180 (ANFO = 100)

• Water Resistance Excellent

• Shelf Life 1 Year No significant crystallizing or segregation

• Temperature Ranges -20°C to over +50°C

• Explosion Temperature 2,200 to 3,700°C

• Critical Diameter 0.5 inch (12.7mm)

• Detonation Pressure 100 Kbar

• Absolute Weight Strength 674 – 928 cal/gram

• Absolute Bulk Strength 775 – 1095 cal/cc

• Impact and Friction No action in UN Standard Tests

• Sensitivity No 8 strength detonator

• Hazards Class: Explosive, Blasting Type E, UN 0241 PG11 UN 1.1 D

Bulk Emulsion Explosives

• Velocity of Detonation 13,000 ft/s (4000 m/s) - 19,000 ft/s (5800 m/s)

• Bulk Density 1.07 to 1.31 g/cc

• Relative Bulk Strength 126 – 187 (ANFO = 100)

• Water Resistance:

Poor (Emulsion/ANFO 25/75, 20/80, 10/90)

• Shelf Life 1 Year No Crystallizing or segregation

• Temperature Ranges -20°C to over +50°C

• Explosion Temperature 2,200 to 3,700°C

• Heat at Constant Volume 3 to 5 MJ/kg

• Specific Energy 800 to 1,200 kJ/kg

• Specific Pressure 8,500 to over 11,000 atm/kg.

• UN Hazards Class options

Ammonium Nitrate Emulsion UN 3375
Hazard Class 5.1 Oxidizing Substance

-or-

Explosive, Blasting Type E, UN 0332
Hazard Class1.5D Blasting Agent

* Dependent upon the ratio of Emulsion or ANFO in the blend or pumped as bulk