Bidirectional wireless detonator system
AssigneeDetnet South Africa (Pty) Ltd
InventorsDaniel August Julien Louis Maurissens, Elmar Lennox Muller
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Abstract
A blasting system which includes control equipment and a plurality of detonators which are located in respective boreholes formed in rock, wherein signals from the detonators are magnetically transmitted wirelessly through the rock to the control equipment via different paths between successive detonators, and wherein a signal from the control equipment can be simultaneously transmitted to all of the detonators.
Claims11
A blasting system which includes a control antenna, control equipment and a plurality of detonators, wherein each detonator is located in a respective borehole formed in rock and includes a respective transmitter and receiver and is adapted to magnetically communicate wirelessly through the rock in a two-directional manner with a number of detonators, fewer than all of the plurality of detonators, which number of detonators are disposed in adjacent boreholes, whereby a signal from the control equipment is transmitted by the control antenna through the rock and is then relayed in succession via the respective transmitters and receivers of at least some of the plurality of detonators along a plurality of outbound paths in the rock to all the plurality of detonators, and a signal from any detonator is relayed in succession via the respective transmitters and receivers of at least some of the plurality of detonators along a respective inbound path in the rock to the control antenna, and wherein the control equipment is operable to transmit a signal from the control antenna through the rock simultaneously to all of the detonators.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.