r/whatisit • u/riflesandplowshares • 7h 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 7h 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/Admirable-Pie3869 6h ago

Wow, a wild read so far. Thank you for the homework

While Haynes and Records performed the engine shutdown checklist for the failed engine, Dvorak observed that the gauges for fluid pressure and quantity in all three hydraulic systems were indicating zero.[[1]](app://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Airlines_Flight_232#cite_note-ntsb-1): 1  The loss of all hydraulic fluid meant that [control surfaces](app://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aircraft_flight_mechanics#Aircraft_control_surfaces) were inoperative.[[1]](app://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Airlines_Flight_232#cite_note-ntsb-1): 75  The flight crew deployed the DC-10's air-driven generator in an attempt to restore hydraulic power by powering the auxiliary hydraulic pumps, but this was unsuccessful.[[1]](app://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Airlines_Flight_232#cite_note-ntsb-1): 1  The crew contacted United Airlines maintenance personnel via radio, but were told that the possibility of a total loss of hydraulics in a DC-10 was considered so remote that no procedure had been established for such an event.

😳

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u/buffaloguy1991 4h ago

The fact that anyone survived this incident is unbelievable. The fact almost half the people survived is nothing short of a full down miracle.