Application of an in-house MWD system for quarry blasting Research-based results of the H2020 project "SLIM Sustainable Low Impact Mining solution for exploitation of small mineral deposits based on advanced rock blasting and environmental technologies" presented by Juan Navarro at FRAGBLAST12 © E.T.S.I. Minas y Energía, UPM The high cost and the difficulty of installing the drill monitoring system commonly known as MWD (Measurement While Drilling), especially in the older drills, restrain the use of this technology in numerous small quarries and mines. An in-house MWD system has been developed as a low-cost alternative that allows monitoring the information of any rig while drilling. For that, the digitization and automatic sampling of the analogical signals of the sensors involved in the operation have been carried out for their logging and retrieval. The prototype has been installed in a top hammer rotary-percussive vertical rig and has been tested in the monitoring of six blastholes. The MWD parameters have been combined, considering their variation and magnitude, in order to obtain a fracturing index to be used as an engineering tool for geotechnical rock characterisation. The index has been assessed against photographic records of the blastholes' walls made with an optical televiewer. Authors: J. Navarro, P. Segarra, J.A. Sanchidrián, R. Castedo, A.P. Pérez Fortes, M. Natale, L.M. López Universidad Politécnica de Madrid – E.T.S.I. Minas y Energía, Ríos Rosas 21, 28003 Madrid, Spain Keywords MWD system, In-house MWD system, Geotechnical rock characterization Countries Spain, Sweden
