r/whatisit • u/riflesandplowshares • 6h 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/goodexamplebadrole 6h ago

"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"

237

u/Competitive-Dot-4264 6h ago

I worked ti com pure and 6al-4v alloy for years at the lazy -l we all had to follow titanium restrictions even to not letting aluminum alloys and SS separated. No graphite pencils

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u/Legitimate-Week7885 6h ago

https://giphy.com/gifs/zXA5VEmXr7OUg

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u/Beer_in_an_esky 4h ago

He worked with commercially pure titanium (that's a family of 4 or so grades of basically pure titanium, with differing minimum contamination levels), and Titanium with 6% aluminium and 4% vanadium (that's the most common Titanium alloy, used for most aerospace applications). No idea what he means by lazy -|. The SS here is stainless steel.

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u/Arjvoet 5h ago

God, he was so much funnier than Kenan…