Metal-Refining Furnace Operators and Tenders
Operate or tend furnaces, such as gas, oil, coal, electric-arc or electric induction, open-hearth, or oxygen furnaces, to melt and refine metal before casting or to produce specified types of steel.
What you’d do
- Regulate supplies of fuel and air, or control flow of electric current and water coolant to heat furnaces and adjust temperatures.
- Draw smelted metal samples from furnaces or kettles for analysis, and calculate types and amounts of materials needed to ensure that materials meet specifications.
- Weigh materials to be charged into furnaces, using scales.
- Record production data, and maintain production logs.
- Observe air and temperature gauges or metal color and fluidity, and turn fuel valves or adjust controls to maintain required temperatures.
- Operate controls to move or discharge metal workpieces from furnaces.
- Inspect furnaces and equipment to locate defects and wear.
- Drain, transfer, or remove molten metal from furnaces, and place it into molds, using hoists, pumps, or ladles.
Skills that matter
- Operations Monitoring
- Operation and Control
- Monitoring
- Active Listening
- Complex Problem Solving
- 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
- Central Melt Specialist
- Furnace Operator
- Melter
- Vacuum Melter
- Arc and Argon Oxygen Decarburization Melter (ARC and AOD Melter)
- Automatic Furnace Operator
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