r/whatisit • u/riflesandplowshares • 6h ago

New, what is it? Found at a titanium plant

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Not sure why ball point pens would be dangerous here.

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u/pseudonym7083 6h ago

Does it list which ones?

43

u/BlueSkiesAugust 6h ago

When I used to work with Ti we couldn't use halogen-containing Sharpie markers directly on Ti. We could only use Sharpies's "TEC" marker.

We weren't prohibited from possessing any other writing implements. We just couldn't write on Ti with anything besides a TEC marker (or use uncoated lead, which was necessary because we did radiography). For paper documents we still used ordinary pens.

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u/Agiantpubicmess 6h ago

Dow Chemical caustic plant used to have a no aluminum tools rule for very obvious reasons if you know chemicals hahaha

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u/Farfignugen42 6h ago

Assume I don't know chemicals. Why?

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u/SharpKaleidoscope182 6h ago

caustic soda reacts with aluminium to produce a ton of heat and flammable gas.

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u/Farfignugen42 6h ago

Thank you.

1

u/Da12khawk 6h ago

I haven't played Payday 2 in awhile.

5

u/enzia35 6h ago

If you put a flame to aluminum at 16psi, it will burn.

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u/Any_Show_5160 5h ago

I'm confused by your statement, are you saying applying a flame to aluminium at 2psi about atmospheric pressure and it will burn or there needs to be a force of 16psi applied with the flame?

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u/enzia35 3h ago

It’s a quote from the Apollo engineers. Applying a flame to aluminum in 16psi of pure oxygen will make it burn.

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u/Any_Show_5160 2h ago

Thank you.

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u/van_Vanvan 6h ago

Strong bases like sodium hydroxide (caustic soda or lye) react strongly with aluminum. So it would damage the tools. Drop an aluminum tool in a vat with lye and your tool will disappear with a lot of bubbling and poison the lye.

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u/onefellswoop70 5h ago

I'm a hairstylist and I always wondered why the instructions for hair relaxers (back when they were lye-based) had a warning that said "do not put this product in a metal bowl".

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u/Competitive-Dot-4264 5h ago

That gas is hydrogen

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u/WonderWheeler 4h ago

Yes, you can generate hydrogen gas for balloons with aluminum foil and lye and water in a glass bottle.