HEATERS, METAL AND PLASTIC

Job Definition:

Job Description:

• Operate or tend heating equipment, such as soaking pits, reheating furnaces, and heating and vacuum equipment, to heat metal sheets, blooms, billets, bars, plate, and rods to a specified temperature for rolling or processing, or to heat and cure preformed plastic parts.

Duties and Tasks:

• 1) Ignites furnace with torch, and turns valve to regulate flow of fuel and air to burners.
• 2) Inserts vacuum tube into bag and seals bag around tube with tape.
• 3) Positions plastic sheet and mold in plastic bag, heats material under lamps, and forces confrontation of sheet to mold by vacuum pressure.
• 4) Removes material from furnace, using crane, or signal crane operator to transfer to next station.
• 5) Assists workers in repairing, replacing, cleaning, lubricating, or adjusting furnace equipment, using hand tools.
• 6) Records time and production data.
• 7) Signals coworker to charge steel into furnace.
• 8) Impregnates fabric with plastic resins and cuts fabric into strips.
• 9) Pushes cart to curing oven or places part in autoclave.
• 10) Removes part and cuts away plastic bag.
• 11) Positions part in plastic bag and seals bag with iron.
• 12) Removes stock from furnace, using cold rod, tongs or chain hoist, and places stock on conveyor for transport to work area.
• 13) Positions stock in furnace, using tongs, chain hoist, or pry bar.
• 14) Places part on cart, connects vacuum line to tube, and smoothes bag around part to ensure vacuum.
• 15) Adjusts controls to synchronize speed of feed and take-off conveyors of furnace.
• 16) Starts conveyors and opens furnace doors to load stock, or signals crane operator to uncover soaking pits and lower ingots into them.
• 17) Adjusts controls to maintain temperature and heating time, using thermal instruments and charts, dials and gauges of furnace, and color of stock.
• 18) Sets oven controls or turns air-pressure valve or autoclave.

Activities:

•  Controlling Machines and Processes — Using either control mechanisms or direct physical activity to operate machines or processes (not including computers or vehicles).

Abilities:

Knowledge

• 1) Production and Processing — Knowledge of raw materials, production processes, quality control, costs, and other techniques for maximizing the effective manufacture and distribution of goods.
• 2) Mechanical — Knowledge of machines and tools, including their designs, uses, repair, and maintenance.
• 3) Physics — Knowledge and prediction of physical principles, laws, their interrelationships, and applications to understanding fluid, material, and atmospheric dynamics, and mechanical, electrical, atomic and sub- atomic structures and processes.