BLAST TAMER^®

BLAST TAMER^® is polyurethane foam used to prevent the sympathetic detonation of adjacent piles of explosive materials, increasing storage safety.

The Setup:

Typically, the BLAST TAMER^® system is installed inside an earth-covered magazine structure. Installation usually consists of a series of cubicles that isolate different types of explosive materials from each other. The system allows the storage of several types of explosives in a single space, and can improve the capacity of the earth-covered magazine by up to 800%.

For the demonstration, a downsized BLAST TAMER^® cubicle was constructed on-site, and filled with sand to make the demonstration as accurate as possible. A 1 Ib block of C-4 plastic explosive was placed next to the cubicle. The size of the explosive charge placed inside was scaled to the size of the cubicle to demonstrate the worst–case scenario.

The Result:

As intended, the blast fully destroyed the BLAST TAMER^® cubicle. In the process of destruction, the explosive force of the blast is partially absorbed and then deflected upwards, away from the (theoretical) pile of explosive materials adjacent to the walls of the cubicle. In this way, the BLAST TAMER^® system prevented a sympathetic detonation of other explosive material nearby.

In three different demonstrations of the system with the same 40 Ib TNT charge in each, the block of C-4 did not sympathetically detonate, proving the effectiveness of the system.