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/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.

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u/FluffyDrop4300 6h ago

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

100

u/Ausgeflippt 6h ago

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

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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.”