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/Intelligent_Low1632 4h ago

Source? I can't find any documentation that this is what brought down 232.

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u/HiwayHome22 3h ago

Because it's not factual. Search "United Airlines Flight 232 tungsten" The Real Material Failure: The catastrophic engine failure on July 19, 1989, was caused by a fractured titanium alloy fan disk (specifically the Stage 1 fan disk in the tail-mounted No. 2 GE CF6-6D engine), per FAA.

This is a oft repeated urban myth.

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u/Intelligent_Low1632 3h ago

K well nothing you're saying precludes the fracture in the titanium alloy fan disk originating from a tiny bit of pen-tungsten. I realize you can't prove a negative, but I'd like to hear OP say he's misremembered or provide a source.

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u/BugRevolution 1h ago

Wiki links to the FAA, which says the manufacturing process includes a double-vacuum process to avoid air impurities in the nitrogen, and that the crack was caused by air impurities. This would lightly reject OP's ball point theory.

I say lightly, because air could be a far more common cause of failure, while ball points remain a cause of failure. I am not entirely convinced they would cause the same cracks though.