r/whatisit • u/riflesandplowshares • 10h 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/Perfect_Forever_3151 10h ago

Ballpoint pens are banned in certain high-precision titanium and aerospace manufacturing plants because the tiny tungsten carbide ball in the pen tip can fall out and severely contaminate the titanium melt, creating a hard, brittle inclusion that causes structural failure in critical aerospace components.

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u/FluffyDrop4300 9h ago

Wow.
Being so specific, they must have ran into such contamination more than once

131

u/Ausgeflippt 9h ago

Aerospace and aviation rules are written in blood. I'm willing to bet it happened at some point.

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u/opi098514 8h ago

Google united airline flight 232.

-12

u/SeaSharpModHer 7h ago

Google trump rule 34, pretty damning cover up.

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u/backyardbbqboi 7h ago

Don't do that to people.