Welders, Cutters, and Welder Fitters

• Operate safety equipment and use safe work habits.
• Lay out, position, align, and secure parts and assemblies prior to assembly, using straightedges, combination squares, calipers, and rulers.
• Examine workpieces for defects and measure workpieces with straightedges or templates to ensure conformance with specifications.
• Recognize, set up, and operate hand and power tools common to the welding trade, such as shielded metal arc and gas metal arc welding equipment.
• Weld separately or in combination, using aluminum, stainless steel, cast iron, and other alloys.
• Clamp, hold, tack-weld, heat-bend, grind or bolt component parts to obtain required configurations and positions for welding.
• Select and install torches, torch tips, filler rods, and flux, according to welding chart specifications or types and thicknesses of metals.
• Ignite torches or start power supplies and strike arcs by touching electrodes to metals being welded, completing electrical circuits.
• Connect and turn regulator valves to activate and adjust gas flow and pressure so that desired flames are obtained.
• Determine required equipment and welding methods, applying knowledge of metallurgy, geometry, and welding techniques.
• Monitor the fitting, burning, and welding processes to avoid overheating of parts or warping, shrinking, distortion, or expansion of material.
• Operate manual or semi-automatic welding equipment to fuse metal segments, using processes such as gas tungsten arc, gas metal arc, flux-cored arc, plasma arc, shielded metal arc, resistance welding, and submerged arc welding.
• Analyze engineering drawings, blueprints, specifications, sketches, work orders, and material safety data sheets to plan layout, assembly, and welding operations.
• Mark or tag material with proper job number, piece marks, and other identifying marks as required.
• Prepare all material surfaces to be welded, ensuring that there is no loose or thick scale, slag, rust, moisture, grease, or other foreign matter.
• Remove rough spots from workpieces, using portable grinders, hand files, or scrapers.
• Chip or grind off excess weld, slag, or spatter, using hand scrapers or power chippers, portable grinders, or arc-cutting equipment.
• Preheat workpieces prior to welding or bending, using torches or heating furnaces.
• Develop templates and models for welding projects, using mathematical calculations based on blueprint information.
• Position and secure workpieces, using hoists, cranes, wire, and banding machines or hand tools.
• Guide and direct flames or electrodes on or across workpieces to straighten, bend, melt, or build up metal.
• Detect faulty operation of equipment or defective materials and notify supervisors.
• Clean or degrease parts, using wire brushes, portable grinders, or chemical baths.
• Cut, contour, and bevel metal plates and structural shapes to dimensions as specified by blueprints, layouts, work orders, and templates, using powered saws, hand shears, or chipping knives.
• Repair products by dismantling, straightening, reshaping, and reassembling parts, using cutting torches, straightening presses, and hand tools.
• Fill holes, and increase the size of metal parts.
• Check grooves, angles, or gap allowances, using micrometers, calipers, and precision measuring instruments.
• Operate metal shaping, straightening, and bending machines, such as brakes and shears.
• Set up and use ladders and scaffolding as necessary to complete work.
• Hammer out bulges or bends in metal workpieces.
• Dismantle metal assemblies or cut scrap metal, using thermal-cutting equipment such as flame-cutting torches or plasma-arc equipment.

Source: O*NET OnLine information for Welders, Cutters, and Welder Fitters.

• Critical Thinking - Using logic and reasoning to identify the strengths and weaknesses of alternative solutions, conclusions or approaches to problems.
• Reading Comprehension - Understanding written sentences and paragraphs in work related documents.
• Monitoring - Monitoring/Assessing performance of yourself, other individuals, or organizations to make improvements or take corrective action.
• Speaking - Talking to others to convey information effectively.
• Active Listening - Giving full attention to what other people are saying, taking time to understand the points being made, asking questions as appropriate, and not interrupting at inappropriate times.
• Operation Monitoring - Watching gauges, dials, or other indicators to make sure a machine is working properly.
• Judgment and Decision Making - Considering the relative costs and benefits of potential actions to choose the most appropriate one.
• Mathematics - Using mathematics to solve problems.
• Quality Control Analysis - Conducting tests and inspections of products, services, or processes to evaluate quality or performance.

Source: O*NET OnLine information for Welders, Cutters, and Welder Fitters.