Adjust equipment controls to regulate coolant flow
Little of this can be handed to software today.
This happens in the physical world, so software agents do not touch it. Automation here means robotics and machinery, which is a different market from the one mapped on this site, on a much slower clock.
| How automatable | Barely automatable |
|---|---|
| Kind of work | Physical, manual and inspection work |
| Jobs that do it | 14 occupations |
| Tool categories that apply | None |
| O*NET activity | Handling and Moving Objects (4.A.3.a.2) |
What this looks like on the job
Not our paraphrase. These are real task statements recorded against this activity, spread across the 14 occupations that perform it.
- Admit required amounts of water, steam, cooking oils, or compressed air into equipment, such as by opening water valves to cool mixtures to the desired consistency.
- Fill oil cups, adjust valves, and observe gauges to control flow of metal coolants and lubricants onto workpieces.
- Turn valves to start flow of coolant against cutting areas or to start airflow that blows cuttings away from kerfs.
- Turn valves and direct flow of coolants or cutting oil over cutting areas.
- Brush or spray lubricating compounds on workpieces, or turn valve handles and direct flow of coolant against tools and workpieces.
- Turn valve handles to direct the flow of coolant onto work areas or to coat disks with spinning compounds.
- Turn valves or pull levers to start and regulate the flow of coolant or lubricant to work areas.
- Regulate supplies of fuel and air, or control flow of electric current and water coolant to heat furnaces and adjust temperatures.
- Turn valves to circulate water through cores, or spray water on filled molds to cool and solidify metal.
- Start machines and turn handwheels or valves to engage feeding, cooling, and lubricating mechanisms.
- Turn valves to direct flow of coolant against cutting wheels and workpieces during grinding.
- Turn controls to adjust machine functions, such as regulating air pressure, creating vacuums, and adjusting coolant flow.
- Control coolant systems.
- Activate mechanical rakes to regulate flow of ice from storage bins to vats.
What we would actually use
Nothing in our landscape addresses this work. That is the honest answer rather than a padded list: this activity needs a person present, or a machine rather than a software agent.
Nothing on this site applies. Automation here is robotics and machinery, a different market on a much slower clock, and no software subscription moves it.
Chosen for the cheapest thing that does the job, not the best funded. Nothing on this site is sponsored, and the full landscape is there when you want to disagree with us.
How people actually do it
No workflow names this activity yet, but these automate the same kind of work, with the prompts to paste and what to keep for yourself.
Who does this work
14 occupations in the O*NET database perform this activity. Each one has a full breakdown of its other tasks.
- Computer Numerically Controlled Tool Operators
- Cooling and Freezing Equipment Operators and Tenders
- Cutting, Punching, and Press Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders, Metal and Plastic
- Drilling and Boring Machine Tool Setters, Operators, and Tenders, Metal and Plastic
- Extruding, Forming, Pressing, and Compacting Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders
- Food Cooking Machine Operators and Tenders
- Grinding, Lapping, Polishing, and Buffing Machine Tool Setters, Operators, and Tenders, Metal and Plastic
- Lathe and Turning Machine Tool Setters, Operators, and Tenders, Metal and Plastic
- Metal-Refining Furnace Operators and Tenders
- Milling and Planing Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders, Metal and Plastic
- Multiple Machine Tool Setters, Operators, and Tenders, Metal and Plastic
- Pourers and Casters, Metal
- Rolling Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders, Metal and Plastic
- Tool Grinders, Filers, and Sharpeners
Work that goes with it
O*NET groups these under “Adjust equipment to ensure adequate performance”. In practice they tend to be done by the same person, in the same sitting.
Method. The activity, its taxonomy placement and the occupations that perform it come straight from the public-domain O*NET 30.3 database. The automatability band is ours: we map each of O*NET’s 41 generalized work activities to how much of its output current software can produce, assuming a person still reviews and owns the result. It is a coarse three-way judgment on purpose. A precise-looking percentage here would be invented.