Extrusion Machine Operators
Overview
Extrusion machine operators run specialized equipment that shapes heated plastic and metal materials into everyday products like pipes, wires, and structural components. You'll set up machines, monitor temperature and pressure controls, and inspect finished products to ensure they meet quality standards. This hands-on manufacturing role combines technical skills with problem-solving as you troubleshoot equipment, change machine parts, and work with computer-controlled systems. Many operators work in modern factories with opportunities for advancement and technical training programs.
Did you know?
This occupation requires adherence to strict safety protocols and involves physically demanding work with heavy machinery, making safety training and physical fitness essential.
At a Glance
Median Wage
$47,296.30 Avg/yr
Growth
Stable
Top Skill
Active Learning
Key Responsibilities
- Start machines and set controls to regulate vacuum, air pressure, sizing rings, and temperature, and to synchronize speed of extrusion.
- Adjust controls to draw or press metal into specified shapes and diameters.
- Replace worn dies when products vary from specifications.
- Troubleshoot, maintain, and make minor repairs to equipment.
- Select nozzles, spacers, and wire guides, according to diameters and lengths of rods.
- Install dies, machine screws, and sizing rings on machines that extrude thermoplastic or metal materials.
- Reel extruded products into rolls of specified lengths and weights.
- Weigh and mix pelletized, granular, or powdered thermoplastic materials and coloring pigments.
- Maintain an inventory of materials.
- Operate shearing mechanisms to cut rods to specified lengths.
- Test physical properties of products with testing devices such as acid-bath testers, burst testers, and impact testers.
- Determine setup procedures and select machine dies and parts, according to specifications.
- Measure and examine extruded products to locate defects and to check for conformance to specifications, adjusting controls as necessary to alter products.
- Clean work areas.
- Load machine hoppers with mixed materials, using augers, or stuff rolls of plastic dough into machine cylinders.
- Change dies on extruding machines, according to production line changes.
Career Considerations
Safety and Physical Demands
This occupation requires adherence to strict safety protocols and involves physically demanding work with heavy machinery, making safety training and physical fitness essential.
Technical Training Requirements
Workers typically need vocational training or apprenticeships to learn machine operation, maintenance, and quality control procedures specific to extrusion and drawing processes.
Industry Automation Impact
The field faces ongoing automation trends that may reduce job opportunities while increasing demand for workers with advanced technical skills and machine programming abilities.