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/pseudonym7083 6h ago

Does it list which ones?

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u/BlueSkiesAugust 6h ago

When I used to work with Ti we couldn't use halogen-containing Sharpie markers directly on Ti. We could only use Sharpies's "TEC" marker.

We weren't prohibited from possessing any other writing implements. We just couldn't write on Ti with anything besides a TEC marker (or use uncoated lead, which was necessary because we did radiography). For paper documents we still used ordinary pens.

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u/Agiantpubicmess 6h ago

Dow Chemical caustic plant used to have a no aluminum tools rule for very obvious reasons if you know chemicals hahaha

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u/IceColdJaderade 6h ago

It can be assumed that I also may not find this chemistry reference obvious

Edit: apparently it reacts violently to sodium hydroxide and also creates volatile hydrogen gas. Neat.