[labnetwork] Titanium hazard

[Leif Johansen]

Hello Rick,

At DTU Danchip we have an e-beam evaporation system in which we deposit Titanuim. We have had at least three incidents of wipes or other parts catching fire during maintenance work. I do believe that the root cause is that Titanuim oxidizes very fast, especially when a large, fresh surface is exposed to oxygen.

I have tried to translate our safety precautions from Danish into some sort of English:

"Before the work is started, DI water is filled in a bucket and placed next to the machine. Surface cleaning of various chamber parts must take place over the water bucket. All used cloths, with or without Ethanol/IPA are also to be deposited in the bucket, so they can absorb water.
Absorption of water in the cloths will prevent ignition. Some metals, like Titanum, when exposed to mechanical stress like hammering or scraping, form small particles which ignite as a result of fast oxidation"

Hope this could help.

Best regards,

Leif

From: labnetwork-bounces at mtl.mit.edu [mailto:labnetwork-bounces at mtl.mit.edu] On Behalf Of Morrison, Richard H., Jr.
Sent: 6. maj 2013 15:50
To: labnetwork at mtl.mit.edu
Subject: [labnetwork] Titanium hazard

Hi Everyone,

Last week one of the staff was wiping off some evaporator parts that were covered with Titanium metal. He was using texwipes soaked with IPA. He tossed the texwipes in the trash then accidentally dropped some wipes saturated with IPA on top of them and a fire started. It self extinguished after 1 minute but it melted the bottom of a plastic trash can.

Have any of you had that happen or something similar? Needless to say this is very alarming and I need to understand what could have caused this and develop a corrective action plan.

Rick


Draper Laboratory
Group Leader Microfabrication Operations
555 Technology Square
Cambridge Ma, 02139-3563

www.draper.com<http://www.draper.com>
rmorrison at draper.com<mailto:rmorrison at draper.com>
W 617-258-3420
C 508-930-3461

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