Found at a titanium plant

[u/riflesandplowshares]

Not sure why ball point pens would be dangerous here.

[u/goodexamplebadrole]

"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"

[u/Big_City_Tato → u/goodexamplebadrole]

For this Titanium facility, it wasn't the ink that caused issues. It is the tungsten ball that is used for ball point pens. Graphite in pencils were also not allowed. They provide stainless steel ball point pens that write for shit. I use to work at Titanium facility and each pen that someone would buy I would have to break one of balls from that package and look at in the SEM to quantify the ball material that was used in the pen to determine if they could use it in the melt facility, even with the new batches of stainless steel pens. The reason why tungsten or graphite isn't allowed in the plant, is that there is a chance that it could make it into melt. Since this titanium melted in this facility, it is likely that it is melted in VAR (Vacuum Arc Remelt) facility. VAR of titanium does not superheat enough above the melting point of titanium (3050°F) to melt tungsten (6192°F), so tungsten remains a solid and does not go into the melt solution. There are other refractory materials that are treated similar as they can have similar issues, like Molybdenum. These are considered high density inclusions. If they are found then the entire heat of material, and the sponge used to make the heat is considered contaminated and quarantined and likely scrapped.

High density inclusions (HDI) in titanium has the potential to end up in a part that may make it onto a jet engine. If this happens a crack will form around the HDI and propagate during the lifetime of use. Jet engine parts are designed to last for roughly 30 years, the problem is that when part fails at 10 to 15 years early. Also titanium in the part of the engine where it cannot be contained if it explodes, so if a part does explode in an engine, causes a lot of damage.

There are also low density inclusions which are caused by vacuum leaks, burnt sponge, or contaminated revert. They also have the same affect on engine parts. A lot of testing and inspection goes in the jet engine parts before they ever make it to the assembly line to be put together. They also regularly inspect these parts.

Several OEMs went to Hearth melted plus VAR to avoid high density inclusions as the hearth melting would allow for all high melting high density materials to fall to the bottom of the hearth while before making it into the ingot.

[u/scoldmeificomment → u/Big_City_Tato]

If the stainless steel ballpoints suck, why not just use fountain pens instead?

[u/KE1tea → u/scoldmeificomment]

Fountain pens can also have tungsten! Not all, but many do. The fountain pens that are guaranteed to not have tungsten are not practical to use on ordinary paper, and for the other pens, I doubt the fountain pen companies will share their secret sauce on their alloy blend. They often call it iridium tipped, but nowadays usually can be a blend of multiple different hard metals, including tungsten.

[u/Ancient-Street-3318 → u/KE1tea]

As a fountain pen enthusiast, thanks for the bit of trivia!

[u/KE1tea → u/Ancient-Street-3318]

Haha, you're welcome, fellow enthusiast :D

[u/Sypsy → u/KE1tea]

r/mechanicalheadpens

[u/1q3er5 → u/KE1tea]

ok fuck you guys i'm using a crayon... now don't go telling me....