Extruding and Drawing Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders, Metal and Plastic
Set up, operate, or tend machines to extrude or draw thermoplastic or metal materials into tubes, rods, hoses, wire, bars, or structural shapes.
What you’d do
- Measure and examine extruded products to locate defects and to check for conformance to specifications, adjusting controls as necessary to alter products.
- Start machines and set controls to regulate vacuum, air pressure, sizing rings, and temperature, and to synchronize speed of extrusion.
- Determine setup procedures and select machine dies and parts, according to specifications.
- Troubleshoot, maintain, and make minor repairs to equipment.
- Change dies on extruding machines, according to production line changes.
- Load machine hoppers with mixed materials, using augers, or stuff rolls of plastic dough into machine cylinders.
- Install dies, machine screws, and sizing rings on machines that extrude thermoplastic or metal materials.
- Operate shearing mechanisms to cut rods to specified lengths.
Skills that matter
- Operations Monitoring
- Operation and Control
- Monitoring
- Quality Control Analysis
- Coordination
- Critical Thinking
How to get there
Little to some preparation: usually a high school diploma or GED, though some jobs do not need one
Also called
- Extruder Operator
- Extrusion Operator
- Extrusion Press Operator
- Machine Operator
- Equipment Technician (Equipment Tech)
- Extrusion Line Operator
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