Plastic Extrusion Technician
Shift: 1st or 3rd Shift
Pay Range: $20-25/hr.
Location: Cedar Springs, MI
Essential duties & responsibilities-
Follows all SQF procedures to ensure the integrity of extruded sheet relative to food safety.
Complies with safety policies and procedures without exception and reports safety hazards/violations to supervisor.
Committed to open, direct, communication of all process changes, ongoing issues, and process-critical information with other members of the extrusion team to maintain efficient trouble shooting of issues and continuous operation of the line.
Helps promote a culture of continuous improvement – actively uses systems to ensure maintenance needs are addressed in a timely fashion, and improvement ideas are implemented intradepartmental or with the help of supporting resources.
Personally committed to being to work on time for all scheduled shifts. Plans and schedules PTO in a way that allows time to plan for coverage during an absence.
Operational Responsibilities
Sets up and adjusts settings on the extrusion line and auxiliary equipment to run sheet at required thickness, width, roll diameter/weight, silicone load and direction.
Follows cold-start and shut-down procedures for extrusion line and all supporting systems (material storage/transport, crystallizer, dryer, chilled water).
Runs the line at established rates to maximize finished good output and quality.
Responsible for performance to production schedules.
Ensures quality objectives and specifications for thickness, width, clarity, gels, carbon specs, visual defects, etc. are met.
Develops and maintains sheet recipes for various material inputs and virgin flake raw material ratios.
Runs material dryness tests utilizing VaporProXL moisture analyzer.
Understands, monitors, and maintains (as needed) data inputs/outputs of the material handling, chilled water, dryer/crystallizer, and extrusion line. Examples include: on-hand pellet and flake inventory levels, vacuum pump performance and pressures, chilled water set point/return temp/pump pressures, material dryness, flake crystallization, dryer/crystallizer temperature settings, sheet width/thickness/IV levels.
Understands and monitors pressure differential indicators on vac pump systems and extruder and maintains/performs filter cleaning and changes when applicable.
Ensures finished good roll diameter and weight requirements are met without exceeding maximum specifications.
Removes rolls from the line, wraps and labels rolls, and transports them into assigned holding areas or the finished goods warehouse.
Prints labels/transacts finished goods, quality and food checks, etc. within company software systems.
Operates big bag and gondola unloading stations. Ensures there is always flake and pellets available to the extruder.
Tests flake for contamination prior to unloading big bags/gondolas and visually monitors for contamination at big bag unload stations while unloading.
Transports raw materials, supplies, and finished goods in the plant as needed using manual hand jack, powered walk-behind lift, hi-lo roll transport vehicle and tipper.
Monitors the silicone station – adds silicone as required.
Ensures that edge trims are properly feeding into the edge trim grinder.
Maintains an organized department by following established housekeeping and cleaning procedures.
Interfaces with maintenance to submit work requests to address maintenance and performance issues in a timely fashion.
Performs general maintenance on the equipment as needed; communicates all changes to equipment and settings to other departmental personnel.
Maintains a personal tool box with sufficient tools to perform job tasks and light maintenance.