Heat material or workpieces to prepare for or complete production
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 | 10 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 10 occupations that perform it.
- Apply heat to plastic panels, using hot-air welding guns or immersion in hot water, and press the softened panels back into shape by hand.
- Heat-treat parts, using acetylene torches.
- Preheat workpieces, using heating furnaces or hand torches.
- Preheat tools, dies, plastic materials, or patterns, using blowtorches or other equipment.
- Preheat workpieces prior to welding or bending, using torches or heating furnaces.
- Anneal finished workpieces to relieve internal stress.
- Heat billets, bars, plates, rods, and other stock to specified temperatures preparatory to forging, rolling, or processing, using oil, gas, or electrical furnaces.
- Preheat workpieces in ovens.
- Soften metal to be used in designs by heating it with a gas torch and shape it, using hammers and dies.
- Heat glass to pliable stage, using gas flames or ovens and rotating glass to heat it uniformly.
- Preheat workpieces to make them malleable, using hand torches or furnaces.
- Anneal precious metal objects such as coffeepots, tea sets, and trays in gas ovens for prescribed times to soften metal for reworking.
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
10 occupations in the O*NET database perform this activity. Each one has a full breakdown of its other tasks.
- Automotive Body and Related Repairers
- Cutting, Punching, and Press Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders, Metal and Plastic
- Glass Blowers, Molders, Benders, and Finishers
- Heat Treating Equipment Setters, Operators, and Tenders, Metal and Plastic
- Jewelers and Precious Stone and Metal Workers
- Molding, Coremaking, and Casting Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders, Metal and Plastic
- Plating Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders, Metal and Plastic
- Structural Metal Fabricators and Fitters
- Welders, Cutters, Solderers, and Brazers
- Welding, Soldering, and Brazing Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders
Work that goes with it
O*NET groups these under “Prepare industrial materials for processing or use”. 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.