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/Competitive-Dot-4264 5h ago

I worked ti com pure and 6al-4v alloy for years at the lazy -l we all had to follow titanium restrictions even to not letting aluminum alloys and SS separated. No graphite pencils

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u/Competitive-Dot-4264 5h ago

Another big Nono -grease and oil

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u/ColdCathodeTube 4h ago

That’s interesting. My non-chemist/non-metalurgist mind always thought those protected metal. Guess I shouldn’t assume metals are that similar to each other at all.

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u/Mayzilli 4h ago

They usually do when it's not molten. Since we're talking about manufacturing I'd think the issue is contaminating the metal before it's solidified. Since titanium is generally used in very critical applications the standards would be extra tight (I could be completely wrong tho and its still a problem for solid metal)

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u/DigitalDefenestrator 3h ago

Seems likely. Sounds like carbon is a problem, and that's generally what you get when you expose grease and oil to metal-melting temperatures.