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Rolling Machine Worker

What They Do

Rolling Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders, Metal and Plastic Career Video

About This Career

Sets up, operates, or tends machines to roll steel or plastic forming bends, beads, knurls, rolls, or plate, or to flatten, temper, or reduce gauge of material.

This career is part of the Manufacturing cluster Production pathway.

A person in this career:

  • Monitors machine cycles and mill operation to detect jamming and to ensure that products conform to specifications.
  • Adjusts and corrects machine set-ups to reduce thicknesses, reshape products, and eliminate product defects.
  • Starts operation of rolling and milling machines to flatten, temper, form, and reduce sheet metal sections and to produce steel strips.
  • Examines, inspects, and measures raw materials and finished products to verify conformance to specifications.
  • Reads rolling orders, blueprints, and mill schedules to determine setup specifications, work sequences, product dimensions, and installation procedures.
  • Manipulates controls and observes dial indicators to monitor, adjust, and regulate speeds of machine mechanisms.
  • Sets distance points between rolls, guides, meters, and stops, according to specifications.
  • Calculates draft space and roll speed for each mill stand to plan rolling sequences and specified dimensions and tempers.
  • Installs equipment such as guides, guards, gears, cooling equipment, and rolls, using hand tools.
  • Positions, aligns, and secures arbors, spindles, coils, mandrels, dies, and slitting knives.

Working Conditions and Physical Demands

People who do this job report that:

  • You would often handle loads up to 20 lbs., sometimes up to 50 lbs. You might do a lot of lifting, carrying, pushing or pulling.
  • Work in this occupation involves use of protective items such as safety shoes, glasses, gloves, hearing protection, a hard hat, or personal flotation devices
  • Exposure to pollutants, gases, dust, fumes, odors, poor ventilation, etc.
  • Work in this occupation involves using your hands to hold, control, and feel objects more than one-third of the time
  • Exposed to hazardous equipment such as saws, machinery, or vehicular traffic more than once a month
  • Sound and noise levels are loud and distracting
  • Work in this occupation involves making repetitive motions more than one-third of the time
  • Work in this occupation involves standing more than one-third of the time
  • Work in this occupation involves walking or running more than one-third of the time

Working in this career involves (physical activities):

  • Picking out a particular sound in the presence of other sounds
  • Judging how far away an object is, or which of several objects is closer or farther away
  • Seeing clearly at a distance
  • Seeing clearly up close
  • Speaking clearly enough to be able to be understood by others
  • Identifying and understanding the speech of another person
  • Exerting oneself physically over long periods of time without getting out of breath
  • Lifting, pushing, pulling, or carrying objects
  • Using abdominal and lower back muscles repeatedly or over time without tiring

Work Hours and Travel

  • Rotating shift work

Specialty and Similar Careers

Careers that are more detailed or close to this career:

  • Breakdown Mill Operator
  • Calender Operator
  • Cold Mill Operator
  • Mill Operator
  • Rolling Mill Operator
  • Roughing Mill Operator
  • Weld Mill Operator
  • Tube Mill Operator
  • Machine Operator
  • Temper Mill Operator

Contact

  • Email Support
  • 1-800-GO-TO-XAP (1-800-468-6927)
    From outside the U.S., please call +1 (424) 750-3900
  • North Dakota Career Resource Network
    ndcrn@nd.gov | (701) 328-9733

Support