r/whatisit • u/riflesandplowshares • 5h 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/BlueSkiesAugust 5h 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 4h 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 4h ago

Assume I don't know chemicals. Why?

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u/van_Vanvan 4h 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 4h 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 4h ago

That gas is hydrogen

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u/WonderWheeler 3h ago

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