Extruding and Drawing Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders, Metal and Plastic — Tasks

Task statements

• 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.
• Maintain an inventory of materials.
• Clean work areas.
• Adjust controls to draw or press metal into specified shapes and diameters.
• Replace worn dies when products vary from specifications.
• Test physical properties of products with testing devices such as acid-bath testers, burst testers, and impact testers.
• Reel extruded products into rolls of specified lengths and weights.
• Weigh and mix pelletized, granular, or powdered thermoplastic materials and coloring pigments.
• Select nozzles, spacers, and wire guides, according to diameters and lengths of rods.