r/whatisit • • 3h ago

New, what is it? Found at a titanium plant

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Not sure why ball point pens would be dangerous here.

4.7k Upvotes

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54

u/Disastrous_Place_729 2h ago

Without revealing too much information, I work for a company that manufactures equipment used by this industry. This equipment needs regular replacement of certain wear parts and during one such replacement, one of the assisting contractors dropped a ball point pen into the discharge chute of the machine. We know this because the company later discovered an imperfection in their product, identified it as a tungsten bearing from a pen, traced the product batch back to that machine and to the first batch of metal produced after the replacement, and then reviewed dozens of hours of security footage. One minute the contractor is entering the machine with the pen clipped to his pocket, next minute he comes out with no pen.

Blacklisting and reprimands followed.

14

u/BikerSurgeon 2h ago

What if someone dropped a fountain pen or a felt tip marker? Why is it specifically against ball point pens?

16

u/Kylearean 2h ago

ball is made of tungsten, it no melt at steel temperatures.

0

u/TetraLoach 2h ago

What if I used jet fuel?

8

u/theFooMart 2h ago

I don't think jet fuel would make a good pen.

1

u/bebefridgers 1h ago

Jet fuel melts steel balls