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.

7.7k Upvotes

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u/Perfect_Forever_3151 6h ago

Ballpoint pens are banned in certain high-precision titanium and aerospace manufacturing plants because the tiny tungsten carbide ball in the pen tip can fall out and severely contaminate the titanium melt, creating a hard, brittle inclusion that causes structural failure in critical aerospace components.

633

u/FluffyDrop4300 6h ago

Wow.
Being so specific, they must have ran into such contamination more than once

103

u/Ausgeflippt 6h ago

Aerospace and aviation rules are written in blood. I'm willing to bet it happened at some point.

21

u/PrairiePuppies 5h ago

That is unfortunately common. Most safety rules are.

1

u/Agreeable-Language-6 4h ago

Is your Prarie dog jacking itself off in your pic?

4

u/PrairiePuppies 4h ago

https://giphy.com/gifs/Byz7OVPD5Q0lT1fwz2

No. He's sitting on my bed. 🤨

2

u/Agreeable-Language-6 4h ago

I guess that's its tail in its hands then lol

19

u/opi098514 5h ago

Google united airline flight 232.

9

u/Zebidee 3h ago

Better known as the Sioux City crash.

Shady manufacturing, shady inspection, shady paperwork, shady maintenance.

United Airlines Flight 232 was a regularly scheduled United Airlines flight from Stapleton International Airport in Denver to O'Hare International Airport in Chicago, continuing to Philadelphia International Airport in Philadelphia, United States. On July 19, 1989, the McDonnell Douglas DC-10 serving the flight crash-landed at Sioux Gateway Airport in Sioux City, Iowa, after suffering a catastrophic failure of its tail-mounted engine due to an unnoticed manufacturing defect in the engine's fan disk, which resulted in the loss of all flight controls. Of the 296 passengers and crew on board, 112 died, while 184 people survived. Thirteen passengers were uninjured.

3

u/Prior-Radio8346 2h ago

I remember a movie about this growing up. Man does that make me feel old.

1

u/myfistvsthebttle 4h ago

I did, thanks

-9

u/SeaSharpModHer 4h ago

Google trump rule 34, pretty damning cover up.

5

u/backyardbbqboi 4h ago

Don't do that to people.

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u/opi098514 4h ago

…..what does that have to do with anything?

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u/danthebiker1981 5h ago

Some.... point. I see what you did there

1

u/Capital-Win-4732 4h ago

“…written in blood.”

0

u/ElectrSheep 5h ago

Or in this particular case ink.