Apply protective or decorative finishes to workpieces or products
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 | 19 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 19 occupations that perform it.
- Apply solutions or paints to wired electrical components, using hand tools, and bake components.
- Apply glazes, icings, or other toppings to baked goods, using spatulas or brushes.
- Paint or lacquer patterns.
- Install dies onto machines or presses and coat dies with parting agents, according to work order specifications.
- Apply pigment to layout surfaces, using paint brushes.
- Immerse objects to be coated or plated into cleaning solutions, or spray objects with conductive solutions to prepare them for plating.
- Place workpieces in electroplating solutions or apply pigments to surfaces of workpieces to highlight ridges and grooves.
- Apply Masonite, formica, or vinyl surfacing materials.
- Brush, spray, or hand-rub finishing ingredients, such as paint, oil, stain, or wax, onto and into wood grain and apply lacquer or other sealers.
- Finish patterns or models with protective or decorative coatings such as shellac, lacquer, or wax.
- Finish completed products or models with shellac, lacquer, wax, or paint.
- Plate articles such as jewelry pieces and watch dials, using silver, gold, nickel, or other metals.
- Mix pigments to match patients' skin coloring, according to formulas, and apply mixtures to orthotic or prosthetic devices.
- Apply coatings, such as paint, ink, or lacquer, to protect or decorate workpiece surfaces, using spray guns, pens, or brushes.
- Apply rust-resistant undercoats and caulk and seal seams.
- Prepare workpieces for etching or engraving by cutting, sanding, cleaning, polishing, or treating them with wax, acid resist, lime, etching powder, or light-sensitive enamel.
- Mix and apply glazes to pottery pieces, using tools, such as spray guns.
- Clean and paint completed tires.
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
19 occupations in the O*NET database perform this activity. Each one has a full breakdown of its other tasks.
- Bakers
- Cabinetmakers and Bench Carpenters
- Cleaners of Vehicles and Equipment
- Coating, Painting, and Spraying Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders
- Coil Winders, Tapers, and Finishers
- Etchers and Engravers
- Furniture Finishers
- Jewelers and Precious Stone and Metal Workers
- Layout Workers, Metal and Plastic
- Medical Appliance Technicians
- Model Makers, Wood
- Molding, Coremaking, and Casting Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders, Metal and Plastic
- Painting, Coating, and Decorating Workers
- Patternmakers, Metal and Plastic
- Patternmakers, Wood
- Plating Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders, Metal and Plastic
- Potters, Manufacturing
- Tire Builders
- Tool Grinders, Filers, and Sharpeners
Work that goes with it
O*NET groups these under “Apply protective solutions or coatings”. 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.