November 11, 2008

What is an Electric Match?

From Wikipedia:

In pyrotechnics, an electric match is a device to ignite the end of a fuse under control of an externally applied electrical current. They are widely used in professional fireworks displays to control firing from a panel of manually operated switches, or from a computer interface. Electric matches typically consist of a pair of 22-gauge wires joined at the end with a smaller-diameter “bridge wire” that has been coated with a pyrotechnic initiator mixture formulated to ignite at relatively low temperatures.

Quite a long time ago I made some electric matches using a kit which instructed me to just dip the bare ends of some wire into a composition that was dampened with some acetone, and then again into a finish coating.

I didn’t have much luck with that system and ended up firing the electric matches with a high-voltage system just to get them to ignite. I was disappointed. Ever since then I’ve had access to commercially made electric igniters since I am an ATF licensed display operator.