Will “Pump Technician” be Automated?

Core Skills & Abilities

• Read operating schedules or instructions or receive verbal orders to determine amounts to be pumped.

• Communicate with other workers, using signals, radios, or telephones, to start and stop flows of materials or substances.

• Add chemicals and solutions to tanks to ensure that specifications are met.

• Tend vessels that store substances such as gases, liquids, slurries, or powdered materials, checking levels of substances by using calibrated rods or by reading mercury gauges and tank charts.

• Pump two or more materials into one tank to blend mixtures.

• Test materials and solutions, using testing equipment.

• Record operating data such as products and quantities pumped, stocks used, gauging results, and operating times.

• Clean, lubricate, and repair pumps and vessels, using hand tools and equipment.

• Monitor gauges and flowmeters and inspect equipment to ensure that tank levels, temperatures, chemical amounts, and pressures are at specified levels, reporting abnormalities as necessary.

• Turn valves and start pumps to start or regulate flows of substances such as gases, liquids, slurries, or powdered materials.

• Tend auxiliary equipment such as water treatment and refrigeration units, and heat exchangers.

• Connect hoses and pipelines to pumps and vessels prior to material transfer, using hand tools.

• Collect and deliver sample solutions for laboratory analysis.

• Plan movement of products through lines to processing, storage, and shipping units, using knowledge of interconnections and capacities of pipelines, valve manifolds, pumps, and tankage.