Handbook of Occupational Groups and Families		Classification Programs Division
Release Date:  August 2001		Section Fifty-one of Sixty-six

    5400 - INDUSTRIAL EQUIPMENT OPERATION FAMILY   

This job family includes occupations involved in the operation of portable and stationary industrial equipment, tools, and machines to generate and distribute utilities such as electricity, steam, and gas for heat or power; treat and distribute water; collect, treat, and dispose of waste; open and close bridges, locks, and dams; lift and move workers, materials, and equipment; manufacture and process materials and products, etc.

Throughout the following information, an asterisk (*) stands for series with a published standard and a double asterisk (**) stands for series with a published flysheet.

Occupations in this family are:

5402 Boiler Plant Operating*

This occupation includes jobs that involve the operation and operational maintenance of single and multiple fuel water or fire tube boilers and associated auxiliary and pollution control equipment. These boilers operate at various pressures and temperatures in automatic or manual modes to produce steam or high temperature hot water, to operate industrial and institutional facilities and equipment, and to generate electricity.

5403 Incinerator Operating

This occupation includes jobs involved in the operation of a wood-fire, gas, or oil burning incinerator to burn garbage and trash.

5406 Utility Systems Operating*

This occupation includes jobs concerned primarily with operating two or more utility systems such as boiler plants, air conditioning, wastewater treatment, water treatment, and natural gas distribution systems, for large buildings or small complexes, on a continuing basis. Operators should be familiar with and have the ability to adjust and regulate a variety of automatic or manually controlled auxiliary equipment to insure maximum operating efficiency of the systems. This occupation includes jobs that entail operation of two or more utility systems when no single skill or knowledge of a single utility is predominant for recruitment, promotion, reduction-in-force, paysetting, and other personnel processes.

5407 Electric Power Controlling*

This occupation includes jobs involved in controlling the generation or distribution of electric power. The jobs are located at power generating plants, power distribution centers, and substations. This work requires ability to anticipate load changes due to work schedules, weather, etc., in order to engage or cut out power sources; to interpret wiring diagrams for a complete primary power system in order to plan routings and locate failures; and to determine need for and follow emergency procedures in order to insure safety and provide continuous electric service. Employees must know how to operate electric power generating and controlling equipment, such as high voltage generators, rotary converters, transformers, motorgenerators, and remotely operated switches and circuit breakers.

5408 Wastewater Treatment Plant Operating*

This occupation includes jobs that involve the operation of wastewater treatment plant equipment used to collect, treat, and dispose of water-borne domestic and industrial waste.

5409 Water Treatment Plant Operating*

This occupation includes jobs that involve the operation of water treatment plants to pump or treat water for domestic or industrial use.

5413 Fuel Distribution System Operating*

This occupation includes jobs involved in working at one or several work stations of a fuel distribution system, or operating a complete system, to receive, store, transfer, and issue petroleum and other products such as liquid oxygen, liquid nitrogen, and anhydrous ammonia.

5415 Air Conditioning Equipment Operating*

This occupation includes jobs concerned primarily with the operation of air conditioning systems for large buildings or complexes of buildings. Also included are jobs that involve the operation and regulation of cold storage and specialized climate simulation facilities. The work requires the ability to adjust equipment for maintaining desired temperatures and humidity; start, operate, and stop the air handling equipment and centrifugal compressors or absorbers; and detect and diagnose malfunctions in equipment. Operators must know the purposes and locations of all equipment in the systems and the auxiliary equipment (cooling towers, water pumps, air compressors, liquid circulating pumps, fans, etc.).

5419 Stationary-Engine Operating

This occupation includes jobs involved in operating and maintaining stationary diesel and gas engines and mechanical equipment such as compressors, generators, motors, turbines, steam engines, fans, and pumps used in buildings and industrial processes. Includes observing meters and gauges to determine operating condition of equipment, and making adjustments or minor repairs necessary to insure efficient performance.

5423 Sandblasting*

This occupation includes jobs involved in setting up, operating and performing preventive maintenance on complete stationary and portable sandblasting equipment and machines used for cleaning metal and nonmetal surfaces. The work requires a knowledge of the operating and preventive maintenance features of sandblasting equipment and machines, cleaning characteristics of metals and nonmetals, cutting or abrasive quality of a wide variety of sandlike abrasives, and the optimum air pressures with specific abrasives to obtain the desired finish without damage to work pieces. The work requires the skill to position and hold work pieces and blasting nozzles, and carry out blasting operations and procedures in a safe manner.

5424 Weighing Machine Operating

The occupation includes jobs involved in the operation and maintenance of weighing scales to weigh cars, products, or materials in or out of an installation (e.g., to weigh coinage metals, including bullion, ingots, blanks, planchets, coins, medals, clippings, and other residue, using troy weights, in minting operations; weigh mail and parcel post items in postal operations; etc.).

5426 Lock and Dam Operating*

This occupation includes jobs that involve primarily the operation of navigation lock and dam equipment and machinery to allow river traffic to pass from one level to another because of the differences in elevation between the bodies of water, and to maintain required pool levels.

5427 Chemical Plant Operating

This occupation includes jobs involved in operating and maintaining chemical plant equipment utilized in the development, manufacture, and processing of chemicals and chemical products or the development of chemical and related processes. Typically, such equipment includes reactors, filters, compressors, pumps, valves, furnaces, fractionating columns, generators, centrifuges, meters, stripping units, blenders, mixers, filling machines, evaporators, distillation columns, and other similar equipment. Work includes controlling temperatures, pressures, flows, and reaction time by reading and recording data, adjusting temperature, flow rate, pressure, and similar gauges and instruments, and performing routine chemical analyses and calculations.

5433 Gas Generating Plant Operating

This occupation includes jobs involved in the operation and operational maintenance of plants manufacturing compressed and liquefied gases (e.g., oxygen, nitrogen, carbon dioxide, acetylene, helium) to supply storage tanks, pipelines, or gas charging manifolds. Includes operating equipment such as engines, compressors, generators, motors, pumps, fractionating columns, purifying towers, and heat exchangers; observing gauges and controlling temperatures, pressures, flow, etc; and testing the end product for purity.

5435 Carton/Bag Making Machine Operating

This occupation includes jobs involved in setting up, adjusting, and operating production machines to cut, score, slit, fold, crease, slot, stitch, glue, or seal corrugated cardboard, paper, plastic sheet, cellophane, metal foil, or other similar materials to make cartons, carton spacers, liners, or bags for packing items.

5438 Elevator Operating*

This occupation includes jobs involved in the running of freight or passenger elevators. The work includes opening and closing elevators gates and doors, working elevator controls, loading and unloading the elevator, giving information and directions to passengers such as the locations of offices, and reporting problems in running the elevator.

5439 Testing Equipment Operating

This occupation includes jobs involved in testing materials such as metals or plastics and/or products such as vehicle parts for physical characteristics or defects, using powered or manually operated test equipment such as hardness and shock testers, vibration equipment, temperature-humidity chambers, acceleration test machines, pressure test wells, hydraulic tests cabinets, soil compaction machines, mechanical sieve shakers, soil constants apparatus, water retentivity apparatus, cement testing apparatus (flow table, needles, autoclave, and other devices), electrical test equipment, frequency test instruments, optical comparators, profilometers. Includes setting up and operating test equipment, using test apparatus to apply tests to materials or products, recording readings, observing and recording established reactions, and classifying according to defined categories. This occupation does not include jobs that primarily require: (1) knowledge/skill in the work processes involved in producing or repairing the materials or products tested, or (2) technical knowledge of engineering or the physical, biological, or other sciences.

5440 Packaging Machine Operating

This occupation includes jobs involved in the setup, adjustment, operation, and operational maintenance of automatic machines to fill, mark, fasten, seal, pack, or wrap tubes, cylinders, containers, bags, cartons, or packages of items such as coins, hardware, or other articles.

5446 Textile Equipment Operating

This occupation includes jobs involved in the operation and operational maintenance of textile processing and/or fabricating equipment and machinery used in one more major operations such as cleaning and ginning operations involved in producing cotton; opening, picking, carding, combing, and drafting operations involved in producing various hank roving for use in yarns, twines, and cords; wrapping, slashing, and weaving operations involved in developing fabrics; sponging, scouring, carbonizing, fulling, dyeing, and other chemical and physical treatment operations involved in finishing fabrics; and spreading, die-cutting, pinking, and other similar operations involved in preparing fabric for sewing.

5455 Paper Pulping Machine Operating

This occupation includes jobs involved in operating and servicing an industrial-type paper pulping machine to reduce classified documents to pulp.

5478 Portable Equipment Operating

This occupation includes jobs involved in the operation of portable (including mounted or towed) construction equipment and power tools such as pneumatic tools, drilling machines, winches, hoists, lifts, compressors, engines, pumps, generators, and other similar equipment powered by a vehicle engine with a power takeoff or by an independent engine or generator.

5479 Dredging Equipment Operating

This occupation includes jobs involved in operating drags and dumping gates aboard a seagoing hopper dredge or operating dredging equipment on a hydraulic pipeline dredge (operating levers and/or winches to move the dredge and make required cuts) to dredge mud, silt, and sand from rivers and harbors.

5484 Counting Machine Operating

This occupation includes jobs involved in setting up, operating, and making minor repairs to automatic machines that count coins in bulk quantities and make up rolls or bags containing specific amounts. Includes visually examining medals, proof coins, and planchets and removing uncurrent, counterfeit, mutilated, and foreign pieces.

5485 Aircraft Weight and Balance Operating

This occupation includes jobs that involve examining single and multiple engine aircraft for weight and balance purposes, weighing the aircraft, computing weight and balance factors, and releasing the aircraft for flight with respect to weight and balance. This work requires knowledge of the general aircraft structure and the location of various aircraft components, operation of aircraft weighing scales, procedures for weighing each type of aircraft, and methods of computing weight and balance data.