Melt Technician

Set up, tend, and operate an induction melting furnace to melt and pour molten metal into preheated ceramic shell molds — charging the furnace with alloy and revert, monitoring melt temperature and chemistry, skimming and deoxidizing, pouring to specification, and maintaining furnace lining and pouring equipment — using any combination of electrical, electronic, mechanical, hydraulic, pneumatic, or computer technologies.

• Department: Production
• FLSA Status: Non-Exempt
• Job Type: Regular
• Work Schedule: First Shift (6:00 AM – 2:30 PM)
• Job Status: Full Time
• Reports To: Assistant Manager
• Amount of
  
  Travel Required:
  
  None
• Positions Supervised: None
• Pay Range: $18.00 – $24.00 per hour

To perform this job successfully, an individual must be able to perform each essential duty satisfactorily. Reasonable Accommodations may be made to enable qualified individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions.

• Adhere to all applicable regulations, policies, and procedures for health, safety, and environmental compliance.
• Inspect poured castings for fill, cold shuts, misruns, and surface condition, and for adherence to customer specifications.
• Set up and operate the induction melting furnace and pouring equipment — including charging, power control, and tilt or crucible handling — in accordance with current good manufacturing practices and standard operating procedures.
• Calibrate or adjust equipment to ensure quality production, using tools such as immersion and optical pyrometers, thermocouples, scales, calipers, and micrometers.
• Set up and verify the functionality of melt deck safety equipment, including furnace cooling-water interlocks, ground-leak detection, guarding, and emergency stops.
• Monitor and adjust melt parameters — charge make-up, power input, melt and pour temperature, hold time, shell preheat temperature, and pour rate — for quality and productivity.
• Troubleshoot furnace power supply and cooling faults, crane or hoist problems, and casting defects such as misruns, cold shuts, shrinkage, or inclusions.
• Test products or subassemblies for functionality or quality.
• Plan and lay out work to meet production and schedule requirements.
• Start up and shut down the melt deck, including furnace cooling systems, fume ventilation, and shell preheat furnaces.
• Prepare and weigh charge materials, including virgin alloy, revert, and alloying additions.
• Provide advice or training to other technicians.
• Measure and record melt and pour temperatures, heat numbers, charge weights, and chemistry sample results on process control logs.
• Assist engineers in developing, building, or testing prototypes or new products, processes, or procedures.
• Prepare production documents, such as standard operating procedures, manufacturing batch records, inventory reports, or productivity reports.
• Install new equipment.
• Clean production equipment and work areas, including removing slag and metal buildup from crucibles, launders, and pouring tools.
• Collect hazardous or non-hazardous waste in correctly labeled barrels or other containers and transfer them to collection areas.
• Provide production, progress, or changeover reports to shift supervisors.
• Select cleaning materials, tools, or equipment.
• Skim slag and dross from the melt and add deoxidizers or alloy corrections as directed.
• Take chemistry samples from each heat and submit them for spectrometer analysis before pouring.
• Maintain inventory of job materials.
• Repair, patch, and reline furnace refractory and crucibles, and maintain pouring shanks, cups, and tools.
• Package finished products.
• Clean scrap materials for recycling or reuse, such as preparing steel revert for the melting processes.
• Conduct environmental safety inspections in accordance…