Drill & Blast Instrumentation
RESPEC closely collaborates with Carlson Software—the industry leader in quality software solutions for land development professionals in the surveying, civil engineering, mining, and construction fields since 1983—to serve the global mining industry with consultation and implementation services and an expanded line of Carlson products for drill and blast projects. RESPEC represents Carlson in North America and elsewhere by providing training on the Carlson Laser Measurement Devices (LMD) product line as well as testing and selling LMD equipment. Today, Carlson’s comprehensive mine and quarry measurement and mapping tools (both hardware and software) have expanded significantly and are used worldwide by mining professionals.
RESPEC delivers high-performance, precision mapping using Carlson’s reliable world-class systems and sensors for mining in difficult conditions where speed, accuracy, and safety matter. Using Carlson Mine hardware products, RESPEC’s team meets extreme challenges for mapping, surveying, positioning, and measuring for both surface and underground environments.
RESPEC’s Explosives Engineering Team specializes in solving critical drilling and blasting issues safely and effectively. Our dynamic partnership team combines advanced knowledge with innovative technology solutions that support clients and takes full control of the mine site. RESPEC’s integrated technology field services provide mining clients with a holistic understanding of their site, support mine planning decisions, improve safety, and reduce overall mine costs for one-time or ongoing projects.
In consultations for new or existing blasting projects, mining clients benefit from direct access to RESPEC’s highly skilled and experienced team, who specialize in surface- and underground-specific, drill and blast training for drillers, blasters, engineers, and management. We provide on-site training in and demonstrations of the following Carlson Mining product line, which has been developed in over 35 years of fieldwork and widely adopted in the global mining industry for reliability and ease of use.
Blasthole Survey Systems
As drilling and blasting clients know, no borehole is perfect. Boreholes frequently deviate from the intended path and cause problems and cost overruns. Factors contributing to borehole deviation can include the level of driller experience, equipment quality, drill angle, and local geology. Before the Carlson Boretrak (Boretrak) innovation, no highly accurate or easy way to measure deviation existed. Manual and mechanical methods lacked accuracy and produced too little data to be mapped against the drilling plan for comparison. Revealing the precise path of the borehole, RESPEC uses both rodded and cabled variations of the Boretrak system to help mining clients make accurate assessments regarding ore volume.
Carlson Boretrak®2
Carlson’s Boretrak2 was developed as a successor to the well-known Rodded and Cabled Boretrak systems which have had a 35-year product history. The Boretrak2 has 360 degree capabilities and is used to survey drilling activity in any direction for surface and underground mining operations. The Carlson Boretrak2 is a cost-effective, rugged borehole-deviation surveying system that is compact, lightweight, and portable. The unique retractable design of the Boretrak2 further enhances the reliable and versatile probe system that offers significant advantages over previous deployment options. RESPEC uses the Boretrak2 system to confirm the actual path of the borehole after drilling. Boretrak sensors are accurate to ±0.1 degree for reliable data. The Boretrak2 assists to calculate precise burdens and supports safer blasting with fewer fly-rock incidents; reduces secondary breakage; improves crusher throughput; and minimizes environmental impacts, including airblast, noise, and vibrations.
Laser Scanning Systems
Carlson Void Scanner for Cost-Effective Cavity Monitoring
RESPEC helps mining clients access the inaccessible with Carlson’s Void Scanner and real-time, three-dimensional (3D) laser-surveying system. Our drill and blast team uses Void Scanner to enhance project capability, minimize safety risks, and improve site management. With high-speed scanning times, Void Scanner simplifies operations and speeds up decision-making for the client.
Carlson C-ALS® Borehole-Deployable Laser Scanner for Concealed Cavity and Void Scanning
RESPEC helps mining clients gain access to concealed cavities using the C-ALS (Cavity Auto-scanning Laser System), which is a unique, specialized, underground laser-cavity monitoring system that quickly and safely enables mapping of previously inaccessible parts of mines. The C-ALS cavity monitoring system is used in a wide range of applications where an inaccessible void exists and accurate data are required to monitor excavations, assess risk, or design solutions. C-ALS provides more detailed, accurate data than alternative technologies (e.g., ground-penetrating radar) and is the only borehole-deployable laser solution on the market. With new underground mapping capabilities, C-ALS helps clients scan inaccessible underground workings safely, quickly, and reliably.
Carlson Quarryman® Pro Laser Scanning for Quarry Surveying and Stockpile Monitoring
RESPEC uses the rugged, portable Quarryman Pro as a must-have rock-profiling and laser-scanning and measurement system of choice for mine and quarry clients worldwide. Carlson’s most robust system builds on over 20 years of experience in delivering laser-scanning solutions to the quarrying industry worldwide. Quarryman Pro benefits mining clients with improved worker and environmental safety as a result of accurate data and safer blasts. As a means of process checking, stockpile monitoring, and checking operations for legal compliance, the system also increases profitability by cutting the costs of transport hire, fuel, explosives, and secondary breakage. Quarryman Pro captures the data needed to make decisions that increase productivity, improve postblast workflow, and minimize costs. Quarryman Pro calculates the stockpile volume quickly to produce fast and accurate material stock valuations.
Blasthole Monitoring
RESPEC offers various blast monitoring equipment for sale and service work through our partnership with ShotTrack, an Australian instrumentation manufacturing company. RESPEC provides local support for ShotTrack in North America, including Canada, the United States, and Mexico. Some of the equipment that RESPEC offers through ShotTrack is listed below.
ShotTrack VoD 305 Monitor
The ShotTrack VoD 305 is part of the next generation of Velocity of Detonation (VoD) monitors. This instrument takes the guesswork out of blasting performance issues and gives the user insight into what is really happening when explosive products detonate. Why is measuring the VoD important? The VoD can evaluate the performance of the bulk explosives being used in addition to evaluating the blast as a whole. The measured VoD can also be compared to the VoD specified in manufacturing for post-blast evaluation. Post-blast evaluation of a blast design is carried out with the assumption that the explosives have performed as per the specifications, which may not always be the case. VoD allows for measuring the actual performance in the field compared to the manufacturing specifications of the explosive product.
ShotTrack ViB Monitor
The ShotTrack Vibration (ViB) monitor uses accelerometer technology and high sample rates for capturing key data, such as precise detonation timing. The ViB can be mounted on any axis, which makes the monitor perfect for underground and structural monitoring at mining and construction projects. The ViB systems are fully self-contained vibration monitors designed for far-field, high-sensitivity, low-level vibration applications. The ViB is offered at various monitoring limits that range from 2g to 200g, selectable sample rates of up to 32,000 seconds per second (s/s), GPS pulse-per-second embedded time stamping, and up to 1,000-meter remote wireless control and download. This ViB unit covers many low-level vibration monitoring requirements and analysis.
ShotTrack BIC
ShotTrack will offer the Blast Inspection Camera (BIC), a tough, easy-to-use, high-speed camera that records 1,000 frames per second, in 2022. The BIC will also have remote upload and control capabilities.
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