BLASTING CAPS
A blasting cap is a small sensitive primary explosive device generally used to detonate a larger, more powerful and less sensitive secondary explosive such as dynamite.
Blasting caps come in a different varaity of types, some of which are: non-electric caps, electric caps, and fuse caps.
The need for blasting caps comes due to sensitivity issues of an explosive compound.A certain amount of energy Is need by all the explosive compounds to create detonation. If an explosive is too sensitive, it may go off unexpectedly, and so the most practical explosive compound is one that is safe to handle and will not explode if accidentally dropped or mishandled. However, such explosives are hard to initiate intentionally as well. A blasting cap contains an easy-to-ignite explosive that provides the initial activation energy to start a detonation in a more stable explosive.
Most blasting caps contain what is called a primary explosive. A primary explosive is a high explosive compound that will explode from flame, heat or shock. A blasting cap may also contain a booster – another explosive to make the cap more powerful, and thus more reliable for detonating secondary explosives.
Explosives commonly used in blasting caps include mercury fulminate, lead azide, lead styphnate and tetryl
.
Because of their size and appearance, blasting caps are sometimes not recognized as explosives, leading to injuries.
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