Profession metal polisher

Metal polishers use metal working equipment and machinery to polish and buff almost finished metal workpieces in order to enhance their smoothness and appearance and to remove oxidisation, tarnishing the metal after the other fabrication processes. They may operate equipment using diamond solutions, silicon-made polishing pads, or working wheels with a leather polishing strop, and tend to these materials ensuring their effectiveness.

Personality Type

• Realistic / Conventional

Knowledge

• Buffing motions

  The different processes, or motions, used in polishing, depending on the desired end result concerning the level of smoothness and shininess of the metal workpiece: cut motion or colour motion.

• Quality and cycle time optimisation

  The most optimal rotation or cycle time and over-all quality of a tool or a machine's processes.

• Quality standards

  The national and international requirements, specifications and guidelines to ensure that products, services and processes are of good quality and fit for purpose.

• Types of metal

  Qualities, specifications, applications and reactions to different fabricating processes of various types of metal, such as steel, aluminium, brass, copper and others.

Skills

• Supply machine

  Ensure the machine is fed the necessary and adequate materials and control the placement or automatic feed and retrieval of work pieces in the machines or machine tools on the production line.

• Spot metal imperfections

  Observe and identify various kinds of imperfections in metal workpieces or finished products. Recognise the best fitted manner of fixing the problem, which could be caused by corrosion, rust, fractures, leaks, and other signs of wear.

• Troubleshoot

  Identify operating problems, decide what to do about it and report accordingly.

• Apply polishing lubricants

  Apply the appropriate lubricant matching the kind of metal of the processed metal workpiece during polishing processes, such as was or kerosene.

• Remove processed workpiece

  Remove individual workpieces after processing, from the manufacturing machine or the machine tool. In case of a conveyor belt this involves quick, continuous movement.

• Set up the controller of a machine

  Set up and give commands to a machine by dispatching the appropriate data and input into the (computer) controller corresponding with the desired processed product.

• Monitor moving workpiece in a machine

  Monitor the processing of a workpiece in motion, such as a piece of metal or wood moved linearly over a static manufacturing machine.

• Ensure equipment availability

  Ensure that the necessary equipment is provided, ready and available for use before start of procedures.

• Remove inadequate workpieces

  Evaluate which deficient processed workpieces do not meet the set-up standard and should be removed and sort the waste according to regulations.

Optional knowledge and skills

Source: Sisyphus ODB