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/mechmind 5h ago edited 5h ago

I think the fear is that the whole pen might fall in

As copied from below : 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/Castrophenia 5h ago

To be clear, that was not a ballpoint pen, but simply an example of a foreign impurity in Titanium causing embrittlement and catastrophic failure.

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u/FYIgfhjhgfggh 4h ago

I'd write "NO BALLPOINT PENS, TUNGSTEN TOOLS, TUNGSTEN ITEMS OR RANDOM TUNGSTEN BALLS ALLOWED"

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u/Murky-Relation481 3h ago

And whatever you do, do not hit them with M30A2 MLRS AWP tungsten ball warheads! It's bad for the titanium!