A professional who controls automatic or semiautomatic equipment to polymerize solutions in reaction kettles to produce synthetic-rubber polymers, such as silicone or neoprene, following written specifications. Respnsibilities include:

• Weighs solid or liquid chemical additives, using balance or floor scale.
• Dumps ingredients into kettle, using overhead hoist.
• Turns valves to load kettles with monomer, catalyst, and modifier solutions.
• Starts agitator and turns steam or water valves to activate and control polymerization.
• Observes and records dial and gauge readings, and draws and tests samples to determine degree of completion of polymerization.
• Turns valves to release vacuum and to cool batch to terminate polymerization.
• Starts pumps to transfer nonreacted materials to rerun tank.
• Flushes kettle with water and changes filter socks, or cleans kettle, using brushes and cleaning solvents.
• May remove reactor cover and manually dump catalyst in reactor.