Metal and Plastic Machine Workers

Metal and Plastic Machine Workers typically perform the following tasks: • Measure and examine extruded products to locate defects and to check for conformance to specifications, adjusting controls as necessary to alter products. • Determine setup procedures and select machine dies and parts, according to specifications. • Start machines and set controls to regulate vacuum, air pressure, sizing rings, and temperature, and to synchronize speed of extrusion. • Reel extruded products into rolls of specified lengths and weights. • Install dies, machine screws, and sizing rings on machines that extrude thermoplastic or metal materials. • Change dies on extruding machines, according to production line changes. • Clean work areas. • Troubleshoot, maintain, and make minor repairs to equipment. • Weigh and mix pelletized, granular, or powdered thermoplastic materials and coloring pigments. • Test physical properties of products with testing devices such as acid-bath testers, burst testers, and impact testers. • Load machine hoppers with mixed materials, using augers, or stuff rolls of plastic dough into machine cylinders. • Maintain an inventory of materials. • Adjust controls to draw or press metal into specified shapes and diameters. • Replace worn dies when products vary from specifications. • Select nozzles, spacers, and wire guides, according to diameters and lengths of rods. • Operate shearing mechanisms to cut rods to specified lengths.