Place materials into molds
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 | Performing General Physical Activities (4.A.3.a.1) |
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.
- Dump and tamp clay in molds, using tamping tools.
- Spray chopped fiberglass, resins, and catalysts onto prepared molds or dies using pneumatic spray guns with chopper attachments.
- Drain, transfer, or remove molten metal from furnaces, and place it into molds, using hoists, pumps, or ladles.
- Pour and regulate the flow of molten metal into molds and forms to produce ingots or other castings, using ladles or hand-controlled mechanisms.
- Position cores into lower sections of molds, and reassemble molds for pouring.
- Pour or load metal or sand into melting pots, furnaces, molds, or hoppers, using shovels, ladles, or machines.
- Pour molten metal alloys or other materials into molds to cast models of jewelry.
- Melt metals or mix plaster, porcelain, or acrylic pastes and pour materials into molds or over frameworks to form dental prostheses or apparatuses.
- Pour, pack, spread, or press plaster, concrete, or other materials into or around models or molds.
- Place glass into dies or molds of presses and control presses to form products, such as glassware components or optical blanks.
- Pat or press layers of saturated mat or cloth into place on molds, using brushes or hands, and smooth out wrinkles and air bubbles with hands or squeegees.
- Add metal to molds to compensate for shrinkage.
- Sift and pack sand into mold sections, core boxes, and pattern contours, using hand or pneumatic ramming tools.
- Create a model of patient's mouth by pouring plaster into a dental impression and allowing plaster to set.
- Pour molten metal into molds, manually or with crane ladles.
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.
- Dental Laboratory Technicians
- Fiberglass Laminators and Fabricators
- Foundry Mold and Coremakers
- Glass Blowers, Molders, Benders, and Finishers
- Jewelers and Precious Stone and Metal Workers
- Metal-Refining Furnace Operators and Tenders
- Molders, Shapers, and Casters, Except Metal and Plastic
- Molding, Coremaking, and Casting Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders, Metal and Plastic
- Pourers and Casters, Metal
- Refractory Materials Repairers, Except Brickmasons
Work that goes with it
O*NET groups these under “Load products, materials, or equipment for transportation or further processing”. 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.