Thermal response tester for qualification of detonators

Detonator plays a critical role in ignition chain of aerospace vehicle. As it is a single shot device initiating ignition chain, it has to cater two contrary requirements i.e it should be Safe against unintended initiation and reliably function upon receipt of intended command. Detonators being single shot devices, the full functional testing is not feasible as it calls for consumption of device itself by test firing. Thus in addition to measurement of few electrical parameters & non-destructive tests (NDT), reliability of the lot is mainly assessed from performance of few randomly selected detonators test firing from that batch. This paper deals with the category of detonator that is initiated with electrical current pulse and thermal response testing of such detonators using the developed thermal response tester. Tester helps in revealing poor thermal contact of electrical bridge wire with initiating explosive and imperfections in bridge wire and soldering. Tester isolates the defective detonators and gives insight in to type of defects which can be used for taking corrective measures in future.