Profession upsetting machine operator

Upsetting machine operators set up and tend upsetting machines, primarily crank presses, designed to form through forging processes metal workpieces, usually wires, rods, or bars, into their desired shape by having split dies with mulitiple cavities compress the workpieces' length and hereby increasing their diameter.

Personality Type

• Realistic / Conventional
• Realistic / Investigative

Knowledge

• Upsetting machine parts

  Parts of a machine used for upsetting processes in forging metals, such as a heading tool, split dies with multiple cavities and a cut off blade.

• Forging processes

  The various processes in the metalforming practices of forging, such as swaging, open-die forging, automatic hot forging, cogging, impression-die forging, roll forging, upsetting, press forging, and others.

• 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.

• Types of upsetting machines

  Types of machines used for upset forging processes, such as the crank press, mechanical upsetting machine, electrical upsetting machine and heading machine.

• 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.

Skills

• Perform test run

  Perform tests putting a system, machine, tool or other equipment through a series of actions under actual operating conditions in order to assess its reliability and suitability to realise its tasks, and adjust settings accordingly.

• 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.

• 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.

• 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.

• Ensure correct metal temperature

  Ensure the necessary, usually constant, temperature of processed metal workpieces during metal fabrication processes.

• Tend upsetting machine

  Tend an upsetting machine such as a crank press, designed for forming hot or cold metal by use of a high energy force and split dies, monitor and operate it, according to regulations.

• Hold metal work piece in machine

  Manually position and hold a, potentially heated, metal work piece for the machine to perform the necessary metalworking processes on it. Take the forming character of the machine into account in order to optimally place and maintain the processed work piece.

• 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.

• Wear appropriate protective gear

  Wear relevant and necessary protective gear, such as protective goggles or other eye protection, hard hats, safety gloves.

• Troubleshoot

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

Optional knowledge and skills

Source: Sisyphus ODB