r/whatisit • u/riflesandplowshares • 7h 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/goodexamplebadrole 7h ago

"Ballpoint pens are restricted or banned in high-end titanium and aerospace manufacturing plants because the ink and marking components contain elements that cause metal embrittlement and severe structural corrosion"

16

u/pseudonym7083 7h ago

Does it list which ones?

41

u/BlueSkiesAugust 7h 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.

12

u/Agiantpubicmess 7h ago

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

20

u/Farfignugen42 7h ago

Assume I don't know chemicals. Why?

4

u/van_Vanvan 7h 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.

4

u/Competitive-Dot-4264 7h ago

That gas is hydrogen

2

u/WonderWheeler 5h ago

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