A professional who operates preexpander and continuous molding machine that expands and molds polystyrene beads under heat and pressure, forming bead board. Respnsibilities include:

• Reads work order to determine resin type and density requirements for bead board production.
• Shoves intake tube in resin and presses tube into coupling of venturi feed system.
• Presses buttons and turns valves to activate centrifuge, supply steam, and feed resin to expander.
• Fills volumetric can with beads and weighs beads to determine density, using balance scale.
• Compares bead density with production requirements.
• Reads steam pressure and temperature gauges and turns steam valve or rotates auger disk, adjusting heat and resin feed rate to control bead density.
• Connects hose of molder feed hopper to aging bin and pushes feed hopper into place to feed molding machine.
• Turns venturi feed valve, sending air through feeder to draw beads from hopper into molder.
• Starts molding machine.
• Guides bead board from molder through rollers of trimmer and saw to start board.
• Monitors gauges and observes operation of molding machine and equipment to ensure operation according to specifications.
• Inspects bead board for specified fusion and finish.
• Turns steam and air valves to adjust heat and bead feed rate to prevent machine overload and to correct flaws in bead board.
• Records lot number of resin, feed rate, and steam pressure, for various densities and board dimensions.
• Computes production in board feet to determine output.