How to become Metal-Refining Furnace Operators and Tender in 2024

Metal-Refining Furnace Operators and Tender Operate or tend furnaces, such as gas, oil, coal, electric-arc or electric induction, open-hearth, or oxygen furnaces, to melt and refine metal before casting or to produce specified types of steel.

Metal-Refining Furnace Operators and Tender is Also Know as

In different settings, Metal-Refining Furnace Operators and Tender is titled as

  • Arc and Argon Oxygen Decarburization Melter (ARC and AOD Melter)
  • Automatic Furnace Operator
  • Central Melt Specialist
  • Control Room Operator
  • Electric Melt Operator
  • Furnace Operator
  • Melt Room Operator
  • Melter
  • Vacuum Melter
  • Vessel Operator

Education and Training of Metal-Refining Furnace Operators and Tender

Metal-Refining Furnace Operators and Tender is categorized in Job Zone Two: Some Preparation Needed

Experience Required for Metal-Refining Furnace Operators and Tender

Some previous work-related skill, knowledge, or experience is usually needed. For example, a teller would benefit from experience working directly with the public.

Education Required for Metal-Refining Furnace Operators and Tender

These occupations usually require a high school diploma.

Degrees Related to Metal-Refining Furnace Operators and Tender

Training Required for Metal-Refining Furnace Operators and Tender

Employees in these occupations need anywhere from a few months to one year of working with experienced employees. A recognized apprenticeship program may be associated with these occupations.

Related Ocuupations

Some Ocuupations related to Metal-Refining Furnace Operators and Tender in different industries are

What Do Metal-Refining Furnace Operators and Tender do?

  • Draw smelted metal samples from furnaces or kettles for analysis, and calculate types and amounts of materials needed to ensure that materials meet specifications.
  • Drain, transfer, or remove molten metal from furnaces, and place it into molds, using hoists, pumps, or ladles.
  • Record production data, and maintain production logs.
  • Operate controls to move or discharge metal workpieces from furnaces.
  • Weigh materials to be charged into furnaces, using scales.
  • Regulate supplies of fuel and air, or control flow of electric current and water coolant to heat furnaces and adjust temperatures.
  • Inspect furnaces and equipment to locate defects and wear.
  • Observe air and temperature gauges or metal color and fluidity, and turn fuel valves or adjust controls to maintain required temperatures.
  • Observe operations inside furnaces, using television screens, to ensure that problems do not occur.
  • Remove impurities from the surface of molten metal, using strainers.
  • Kindle fires, and shovel fuel and other materials into furnaces or onto conveyors by hand, with hoists, or by directing crane operators.
  • Sprinkle chemicals over molten metal to bring impurities to the surface.
  • Direct work crews in the cleaning and repair of furnace walls and flooring.
  • Prepare material to load into furnaces, including cleaning, crushing, or applying chemicals, by using crushing machines, shovels, rakes, or sprayers.
  • Scrape accumulations of metal oxides from floors, molds, and crucibles, and sift and store them for reclamation.

Qualities of Good Metal-Refining Furnace Operators and Tender

  • Control Precision: The ability to quickly and repeatedly adjust the controls of a machine or a vehicle to exact positions.
  • Manual Dexterity: The ability to quickly move your hand, your hand together with your arm, or your two hands to grasp, manipulate, or assemble objects.
  • Near Vision: The ability to see details at close range (within a few feet of the observer).
  • Problem Sensitivity: The ability to tell when something is wrong or is likely to go wrong. It does not involve solving the problem, only recognizing that there is a problem.
  • Reaction Time: The ability to quickly respond (with the hand, finger, or foot) to a signal (sound, light, picture) when it appears.
  • Arm-Hand Steadiness: The ability to keep your hand and arm steady while moving your arm or while holding your arm and hand in one position.
  • Selective Attention: The ability to concentrate on a task over a period of time without being distracted.
  • Multilimb Coordination: The ability to coordinate two or more limbs (for example, two arms, two legs, or one leg and one arm) while sitting, standing, or lying down. It does not involve performing the activities while the whole body is in motion.
  • Information Ordering: The ability to arrange things or actions in a certain order or pattern according to a specific rule or set of rules (e.g., patterns of numbers, letters, words, pictures, mathematical operations).
  • Deductive Reasoning: The ability to apply general rules to specific problems to produce answers that make sense.
  • Rate Control: The ability to time your movements or the movement of a piece of equipment in anticipation of changes in the speed and/or direction of a moving object or scene.
  • Static Strength: The ability to exert maximum muscle force to lift, push, pull, or carry objects.
  • Extent Flexibility: The ability to bend, stretch, twist, or reach with your body, arms, and/or legs.
  • Perceptual Speed: The ability to quickly and accurately compare similarities and differences among sets of letters, numbers, objects, pictures, or patterns. The things to be compared may be presented at the same time or one after the other. This ability also includes comparing a presented object with a remembered object.
  • Depth Perception: The ability to judge which of several objects is closer or farther away from you, or to judge the distance between you and an object.
  • Hearing Sensitivity: The ability to detect or tell the differences between sounds that vary in pitch and loudness.
  • Auditory Attention: The ability to focus on a single source of sound in the presence of other distracting sounds.
  • Flexibility of Closure: The ability to identify or detect a known pattern (a figure, object, word, or sound) that is hidden in other distracting material.
  • Visual Color Discrimination: The ability to match or detect differences between colors, including shades of color and brightness.
  • Trunk Strength: The ability to use your abdominal and lower back muscles to support part of the body repeatedly or continuously over time without "giving out" or fatiguing.
  • Glare Sensitivity: The ability to see objects in the presence of a glare or bright lighting.
  • Oral Expression: The ability to communicate information and ideas in speaking so others will understand.
  • Finger Dexterity: The ability to make precisely coordinated movements of the fingers of one or both hands to grasp, manipulate, or assemble very small objects.
  • Inductive Reasoning: The ability to combine pieces of information to form general rules or conclusions (includes finding a relationship among seemingly unrelated events).
  • Response Orientation: The ability to choose quickly between two or more movements in response to two or more different signals (lights, sounds, pictures). It includes the speed with which the correct response is started with the hand, foot, or other body part.
  • Far Vision: The ability to see details at a distance.
  • Speech Recognition: The ability to identify and understand the speech of another person.
  • Oral Comprehension: The ability to listen to and understand information and ideas presented through spoken words and sentences.
  • Speech Clarity: The ability to speak clearly so others can understand you.
  • Time Sharing: The ability to shift back and forth between two or more activities or sources of information (such as speech, sounds, touch, or other sources).
  • Written Comprehension: The ability to read and understand information and ideas presented in writing.
  • Visualization: The ability to imagine how something will look after it is moved around or when its parts are moved or rearranged.
  • Category Flexibility: The ability to generate or use different sets of rules for combining or grouping things in different ways.
  • Dynamic Strength: The ability to exert muscle force repeatedly or continuously over time. This involves muscular endurance and resistance to muscle fatigue.
  • Stamina: The ability to exert yourself physically over long periods of time without getting winded or out of breath.
  • Written Expression: The ability to communicate information and ideas in writing so others will understand.
  • Gross Body Coordination: The ability to coordinate the movement of your arms, legs, and torso together when the whole body is in motion.
  • Wrist-Finger Speed: The ability to make fast, simple, repeated movements of the fingers, hands, and wrists.
  • Mathematical Reasoning: The ability to choose the right mathematical methods or formulas to solve a problem.
  • Number Facility: The ability to add, subtract, multiply, or divide quickly and correctly.
  • Memorization: The ability to remember information such as words, numbers, pictures, and procedures.
  • Speed of Limb Movement: The ability to quickly move the arms and legs.
  • Spatial Orientation: The ability to know your location in relation to the environment or to know where other objects are in relation to you.
  • Speed of Closure: The ability to quickly make sense of, combine, and organize information into meaningful patterns.
  • Originality: The ability to come up with unusual or clever ideas about a given topic or situation, or to develop creative ways to solve a problem.
  • Sound Localization: The ability to tell the direction from which a sound originated.
  • Night Vision: The ability to see under low-light conditions.
  • Peripheral Vision: The ability to see objects or movement of objects to one's side when the eyes are looking ahead.
  • Gross Body Equilibrium: The ability to keep or regain your body balance or stay upright when in an unstable position.
  • Fluency of Ideas: The ability to come up with a number of ideas about a topic (the number of ideas is important, not their quality, correctness, or creativity).
  • Explosive Strength: The ability to use short bursts of muscle force to propel oneself (as in jumping or sprinting), or to throw an object.
  • Dynamic Flexibility: The ability to quickly and repeatedly bend, stretch, twist, or reach out with your body, arms, and/or legs.

Tools Used by Metal-Refining Furnace Operators and Tender

  • Air gauges
  • Anneal furnaces
  • Argon purging systems
  • Basic oxygen furnaces
  • Blast furnaces
  • Channel induction furnaces
  • Chemical protection goggles
  • Closed circuit television monitors
  • Coal furnaces
  • Control computers
  • Conveyor belt systems
  • Coreless induction furnaces
  • Digital ammeters
  • Digital thermometers
  • Digital voltmeters
  • Digital wattmeters
  • Drying systems
  • Electric arc furnaces
  • Electric induction furnaces
  • Evaporative cooling systems
  • Feed scales
  • Fluid flow meters
  • Foundry casting ladles
  • Foundry molds
  • Foundry overhead cranes
  • Foundry shovels
  • Foundry transfer ladles
  • Foundry treatment ladles
  • Gas furnaces
  • Hearing protection plugs
  • Heat reflective gloves
  • Helium leak detectors
  • Holding conveyors
  • Industrial safety glasses
  • Industrial vacuum pumps
  • Ladle refining furnaces
  • Oil furnaces
  • Open-hearth furnaces
  • Oxygen lances
  • Pivoting conveyors
  • Power hoists
  • Pressure gauges
  • Protective respirators
  • Pyrometers
  • Removable crucible furnaces
  • Rheostats
  • Scissor lifts
  • Scrap charging buckets
  • Slag crushing machines
  • Sprayers
  • Vacuum furnaces
  • Vibratory conveyors
  • Wheeled forklifts

Technology Skills required for Metal-Refining Furnace Operators and Tender

  • Microsoft Excel
  • Microsoft Office software
  • Process control software
  • Process safety management software
  • Production tracking system software