Blasting Into The Future

Fleming Colleges Blasting

Techniques Newsletter
ndustry expert Dale Laframboise is an instructor as well as
coordinator of Sir Sandford Fleming College's new Blasting
Techniques program at the college's Frost Campus in
Lindsay. Mr. Laframboise joined Fleming College from his
role as General Manager of a blasting company in the
Okanagan Valley B.C. Dale also held positions with Pacific
Blasting and Demolition Ltd., O. J. Pipelines Ltd., and
Dyna-Con Explosive Technologies. He has also written training and safety manuals for
large pipeline projects and has course administration and teaching experience. The
new Blasting Techniques program is a two-semester Ontario College Certificate
program, hosted at Fleming's state-of-the-art drilling and blasting training centre in
Lindsay. t is the only program of its kind in Canada.
Blasters fill blast holes with explosives and detonate them to dislodge ore, rock or
aggregate, or to demolish structures. Blasters are employed by mining, quarrying,
construction, and drilling and blasting companies.
n this highly practical hands-on program, student's spend much of their time in labs,
field classes and doing field assignments. Courses include explosives, blast-hole
drilling, blasting theory, blast design, geology, safety and accident prevention, handling
and storage, and environmental issues. The first classes started Sept. 8 2009 and are
currently full. All students will be eligible for Level 1 Certification from the nternational
Society of Explosives Engineers (SEE) The SEE is a professional society dedicated
to promoting the safety, security and the controlled use of explosives. The Society is
recognized as a world leader in providing explosives technology, education, and
information, and promoting public understanding of the benefits of explosives.
Cited from Lindsay Daily Post, via SEE Website.
- Fred Nordstrom

In this issue:
Furukawa Rock DriII
Interview with DaIe Laframboise
A day in the Iife of a bIasting student.
New Product, New Equipment and New TechnoIogy
A Look At Semester One
Editors: Patrick ChishoIm, Thomas Jeffrey, and Nathan Matheson
FURUKAWA DRILL HCR 9003
EASTROCK DRILL
The Furukawa rock drill is a very versatile drill
being able to go anywhere on any terrain, this
drill provides the ultimate in performance and
economy. Furukawa drills are equipped with
features that maximize efficiency to insure high
performance at low operating costs. The HCR
900 was given to our college for a week and was
a great experience this drill was versatile and
had many easy to use functions, it was easily
moved into position the dual tank like tracks this drill was unstoppable you could place
this drill anywhere and work safely. Having the dual controls the operator can position
the drill for more accurate drilling and hole position. Furukawa offers a complete line of
easy to use drills that are durable, and efficient. The Furukawa drills are in the
business of keeping your company productive and profitable even in the most
demanding of situations.
-Pete Trudgen
Interview with DaIe Laframboise
On November 17, 2009, an interview with Dale
Laframboise took place and the discussion was based
on the new course offered at Sir Sandford Fleming
College, Surface Blasting Techniques. The course is an
offshoot of the Resource Drilling and Blasting course,
which is renowned for graduating quality drillers for the
past 30 years. Fleming College, after listening to
industry input, decided there was a need for a blasting
oriented course. ndustry has started to feel the effect
of insufficiently trained people. At the present time there
are no known schools that offer the amount of blasting
training that is offered through the course at Fleming.
There are other schools that offer courses that include
aspects of blasting fundamentals but those are mainly
geared towards engineering. As the curriculum was
being established Dale contacted contractors, suppliers
and manufactures and asked what industry wanted to
see in a graduate. This input, along with Dale's 28
years of experience in the industry established the present course. At the present, this
course is two semesters with safety being the biggest aspect in the course. t also
encompasses documentation, product knowledge, legislation, and blast design.
Blueprint reading and surveying were added to the course. The program is designed
so that it meets and/or exceeds what the industry input is asking for. As the industry
advances with new products and techniques, Dale stated that the course will adjust to
the needs of industry via continued feedback from the industry advisory board. Dale is
also confident that the graduates from this course will be looked on to keep the
industry moving forward, and quoted, "why hire off the street when you can hire a
college trained grad with training?" Graduates could find themselves in various sectors
of the business, which include blasting, pre-blast surveying, explosive supply and
vibration monitoring. Currently the program is not widely known, but with newsletters
and word of mouth, interest in the course has been increasing.
nformation can also be accessed through the schools website
www.flemingc.on.ca. Fleming will also be promoting the
course at the upcoming SEE convention in Florida and will
continue to publish upcoming newsletters.
Thank you Dale for your time and commitment.
- Dave Smith
A day in the life of a blasting student.
Well, its official, 5 am comes way too early, but its
well worth it for the day ahead of us. Bus is leaving
for Huntsville, ON, at 6am and there's not a chance
would miss it. t's not our classes' first chance to be
on a quarry site for a blast, but it is our first chance to
actually help out. Load, set, prime, stem the holes,
and something called blowing out holes. We get to
the site and set out in our groups. t's the second
time we| ve been to the site; we were here a few
weeks earlier to measure and plan out how the blast was going to go. Now we're here
to see our plans in action. didn't realize how heavy 55lbs bags of ANFO got when
you're trudging through 6 inches or more of mud. Ok, 4 bags per hole, 3 pink, 1 white,
70+ holes to fill. Wonder what the compressor is for... Ohhh, that's blowing out holes.
'm thinking should have worn my rain gear. Luckily its only October, a sunny day
with little winds, so it's not too cold. Blow out holes, set primers, fill
full of ANFO, bucket out water, dig trenches, more white less pink,
buckets and buckets of stemming, on and on through the day. Lots
of students were sharing the work and some of the more
adventurous ones tried different aspects of the jobs. Personally,
learned a few valuable lessons. First of all, don't try to blow out
wet holes wearing a T shirt, unless you enjoy sandblasting your
own arm. Secondly, when there are voids in the rock, keep an eye
on your cords as primers can be sucked down, leading to
re-priming the holes. Thirdly, when you're helping re-prime a hole
and they are blowing out the stemming, don't get your face too
close when they hit the ANFO, that stuff tastes nasty. By the time we had finished
loading all the holes, cleaning up the site, packing the left over powder back into the
truck, and triple checking to make sure the site was
clear, it was time to drive to the end of the lot and
watch our hard day's work in action. A few short air
blasts with the horn and a few minutes later, "FRE
N THE HOLE".... BOOM! WOW, 12 hours of hard
work turned into 12 seconds of excitement. The
sound in the air, the vibrations through the earth,
and the sight of a hillside turned into rubble. t may
not be the biggest or the best blast will ever see,
but it will certainly be the one remember as the
first blast ever helped put together, and will
remember for a long time to come.
Thank you Total Site for working with us and we look forward to getting back out there.
- Thomas Jeffrey
New Product, New Equipment and New TechnoIogy
On Nov. 23rd, 2009, students of the Blasting Techniques course, a newly launched
program at Fleming College, directed by their advisor Dale Laframboise, arrived at
Vinemount Quarry, which is situated above the Niagara Escarpment at Stoney Creek,
Ontario. The purpose of the visit is to let students get familiarized with the newest
drilling equipment-SmartRig Roc D9C from Atlas Copco, Sweden. According to Pat
Madden, the technical sales representative for Austin Powder, this is the first kind of
smart drilling equipment in North America.
The SmartRig has some unique features, such as: ROC Manager, Automatic Feed
Alignment, Automatic Rod Adding System and Hole Navigation System. ROC Manager
is a computer program; the driller can design the drilling patterns, alter the patterns for
geographical reasons and analyze the drilling results at the same time. Automatic
Feed Alignment makes it easy to drill the same angle for multiple boreholes without
having any deviation, reducing the set-up time. (Continued next page)
By using Automatic Rod Adding System and
Hole Navigation System. ROC Manager is a
computer program; the driller can design the
drilling patterns, alter the patterns for
geographical reasons and analyze the drilling
results at the same time. Automatic Feed
Alignment makes it easy to drill the same angle
for multiple boreholes without having any
deviation, reducing the set-up time. By using
Automatic Rod Adding System, the only thing
an operator needs to do is to press a button to
get the same depth for all the boreholes.
Having the Hole Navigation System, the
operator can monitor and control all the drilling functions and he can do high precision
drilling even in the worst weather conditions. The SmartRig can drill holes more
precisely; it can bring about outstanding safety, high productivity, lower noise, and
excellent documentation.
During the trip, every student had a chance to sit in
the control cab to learn how to operate the drilling
equipment. Students also learned how each part of
the drill system works, how to determine if every part
of the machine is in optimal working condition, and
how to maintain it. Students of this practical, hands-on
program can benefit a lot from such experience, which
is very helpful to begin their careers.
- Lubiao Zhou.
Look At Semester One
The first semester of the blasting program has been
going great so far. After a few days of introductions and
getting to know the basics, the real work began.
Starting off by getting to know about ANFO, Emulsions,
and what seemed to be a whole second language's
worth in terms and definitions, the class was excited to
hear they were invited to witness their first blast.
n the early morning of September 23rd, 2009 the class hopped on a bus and set out
for Brechin, ON. The LaFarge quarry in Brechin was very welcoming and happy to let
the class have a look around their quarry. After about five hours of bulk loading, the
team finally experienced what blasting is all about.
A few weeks of learning and testing out some detonators in
the school yard and the crew was on the road again. This
time the bus stopped in Dorset, ON, near Huntsville. Drilling
was the topic that day as the class watched some blast holes
being drilled as part of the construction of a landing strip for
a private owner. The team soon returned to do the blast and
are hoping to visit the site again in the second semester.
November was an exciting month. The school had a visit from Orica. The students
spent the day in the yard getting to know a little more about electric detonation.
Everyone was very thankful Orica came out and spent some time with the class. Late
November brought upon a closer look at the new SmartRig, and as winter begins the
crew is working hard preparing for their exams.
From starting off as just a bunch of new faces, the class is doing well and now knows
quite a bit about the blasting industry. Second semester is around the corner and
before you know it 30 new blasters will be etching their names in stone.
- Ryan Goulet
The use of HCS 900 was donated for the week courtesy of Ottawa
based Eastrock. The drill gave students the opportunity to get hands
on training and get the feel of running a drill. Thank you Eastrock
Students manoeuvre a new HCS 900 Furukawa Rock Drill around the Frost
campus yard during reading week this past October.

About EASTROCK
Eastrock is an mpact Energy company, specializing in
the distribution of quality rock drilling equipment.
They are the exclusive distributor for the Furukawa (construction/quarry), Comacchio
(geothermal/foundation), and Perfora (construction/quarry/dimensional stone) brand
drilling rigs in Canada. With over 100 years of drilling experience within the
organization, they are specialist in drilling applications of all types. Eastrock also
provides field, shop and technical service for all products that they sell and have a
professional service facility located in Ottawa. All technicians are factory-trained and
Eastrock offers a fleet of well-equipped service trucks allowing them to offer both shop
and on-site repairs when and where required. www.eastrock.com

Under the watchful eyes of Fleming College teachers and Orica
representatives, students practice tie-in and timing exercises at the
"Blasting Berm" located behind the drilling building at Frost Campus.
Thanks to Orica's assistance, students were able to get "hands on"
training with both electric and Nonel detonators. Thank you Orica for
the opportunity.
About ORICA
Orica is the world's leading supplier of commercial explosives.
Orica works together with their customers to improve the
productivity, economical and environmental outcomes of individual mines. They do this
through the application of advanced blasting solutions tailored to their specific needs
and challenges. Orica has pioneered new technology for more than a century,
adapting to the needs of a changing global mining industry. Their technical people are
some of the best in the business. t is through their strong focus on innovation that they
are able to support the performance interests of their customers. They measure their
achievements through their customer's success. www.orica.com.

About PACIFIC BLASTING and DEMOLITION LTD.
Our program would like to thank Pacific Blasting for all your
support and assistance for our projects. Your generosity is greatly
appreciated.

They are recognized as industry leaders in their field, employing the latest in "state of
the art" technology. They are recognized worldwide for their close-in blasting expertise
as well as their commitment to safety, quality, productivity, and professionalism.
www.pacificblasting.com Thank you Pacific BIasting

t is from companies like these that our scholastic progress is possible. Thank you aII
for the help in making our first semester in Sir Sandford Fleming College a success.
We are looking ahead, hoping that the challenges we will face and over come will
make us all into excellent candidates for the exciting field of blasting.
Next Issue: An overview of our semester 2 classes, including Blasthole Drilling,
Blast Design, and Geology. More adventures in the field, personal stories, and of
course, a brand new Photo Gallery.
Due date: April, 2010.