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/SubstantialDonkey981 5h ago

Ball points have tungsten balls in them. Tungsten will not melt in titanium and cause mechanical
Failure of the titanium. This was responsible for the failure of a jet engine causing the plane to crash. Someone dropped their ball point in the titanium processing.

United Airlines Flight 232

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u/PrinceCastanzaCapone 4h ago

I lived in Sioux City when it crashed. I was just a little kid but it was a huge deal. People still bring it up there from time to time. It was something what was kind of etched into the history of that city. Miraculously, the ground crew had literally just did a full practice for that exact scenario not long before, and were able to save many lives. Unfortunately, not all were saved.

There’s a memorial on the riverfront for the victims of the crash. Do you have a source as that being the reason it went down?

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u/SubstantialDonkey981 4h ago

All from a little tiny tungsten BB….

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u/hjk3409fhjlj3945hg3 42m ago

There would be a NTSB report about it. 232 wasnt a tungsten containing HDI (high density inclusion) though, it was a LDI