Detonator using Nickel Hydrazine Nitrate as Primary Explosive

Nickel hydrazine nitrate is an energetic coordination compound having explosiveproperties in between that of primary and secondary. This compound was used to develop a newtype of detonator by replacing the sensitive primary explosive, lead azide in conventionaldetonators and keeping RDX (cyclotrimethylenetrinitramine) as the output secondary explosive.The detonator consists of three regions, viz., initiation, deflagration-to-detonation transition(DDT), and output. The initiation and the electrical rating of 1A/1W no-fire were achieved usinga suitable squib. The DDT and the output were taken care of, by pressing requisite quantitiesof Nickel hydrazine nitrate and RDX, respectively at required densities in a stainless steel stemchannel. The detonator assembly involves crimping the squib and the stem channel in a stainlesssteel housing and applying a suitable resin at the crimped-end for leak tightness. The outputwas assessed from the dent depth on aluminium plate, volume expansion on lead block, and byachieving veloctiy of detonation of 8200 m/s in mild detonating cords, containing 0.95 g/m ofRDX, which indicates full-order detonation. The detonators were tested at system level andfound to perform satisfactorily