Bespoke Blast Monitoring Equipment

The Blast Log team have significant history in building and installing blast monitoring systems since our days at the University of Leeds.

The advantages of our bespoke monitors are:

Up to 16 channel recording

The systems can record from up to 16 channels, thus allowing a number of different components to be deployed including tri-axial geophones, air overpressure microphones, trigger geophone and even acoustic microphones.

In contrast most commercial units have only one tri-axial geophone and a single air overpressure sensor.

Hard drive data storage

The data storage component is a hard drive resulting in a storage capability that is only limited by the capacity of the hard drive.

In contrast, in commercial systems, the amount of signal storage memory is restricted by the portability of the system, setting limits on sampling frequency, sample length and number of stored records.

Lower signal to noise ratio

These customised bespoke systems employs active amplified tri-axial geophone arrays.

This results in exceptionally clear signals which can be transmitted along very long cables (>500m), with little deterioration in quality.

Common recording time base

The system records on a common time base which allows analysis of arrival times between the individual components including tri-axial geophone arrays and the air overpressure microphone.

All our monitoring systems are custom made and there are two types of systems that we deploy; a mains powered server based system and a battery powered borehole monitoring system.

Server based monitoring system

Our server based systems operates with Microsoft Windows Server and require mains power. If a broadband connection is available, then the system can be configured for remote access.

Previous systems have included:

Borehole monitoring system

Our borehole monitoring systems are specifically designed to monitor vibrations adjacent to sub-surface structures that are vibration sensitive.

This type of system is a practical solution where monitoring cannot be carried out directly on the vibration sensitive structure itself.

This can include adjacent to high pressure gas pipelines and railway tunnels.

The tri-axial geophone sensors are designed to be positioned in pre-sunken boreholes and cabled to a central monitoring point.

At the central monitoring point, the geophone sensor cables are connected to a battery powered case that provides power to the sensors.

Data storage is carried out by a specially configured laptop

In addition, the borehole monitoring system can be configured to connect to our server based system if required.

Clients included

  • Lafarge
  • University of Kentucky, USA
  • Wolf Minerals Ltd
  • University of Leicester, UK
  • Miller Argent
  • Lhoist
  • Tarmac