Heat Treatment Furnace Operator

Heat Treatment Furnace Operator sets up, operates, and monitors HT furnaces to alter the physical and metallurgical properties of metal parts, forgings, or castings. This role ensures parts achieve specified hardness, strength, and durability through precise thermal cycles (heating, soaking, and quenching) while maintaining quality standards and safety protocols. Key Responsibilities 1. Furnace Operation & Thermal Processing - Set up, program, and operate continuous, batch, atmosphere, or vacuum furnaces per process specifications. Execute heat-treating cycles including annealing, hardening, normalizing, stress relieving, tempering. Monitor temperature controllers, cycle times to ensure compliance with metallurgical parameters. 2. Material Handling & Quenching - Load and unload metal parts into furnace baskets, trays, or hearths using overhead cranes, forklifts, or mechanical manipulators. Perform manual and automated quenching operations using oil, water, polymer, or air mediums according to recipe cooling rates. Arrange charges to ensure uniform heat distribution and avoid part distortion. 3. Quality Control & Inspection Perform hardness testing (Rockwell, Brinell) and basic dimensional checks on post-processed parts. Review heat-treat charts, pyrometer logs, and time-temperature graphs to confirm process compliance. Identify and report surface defects, warping, scaling, or improper hardness levels to quality management. 4. Safety & Maintenance - Conduct routine pre-shift equipment checks, inspecting thermocouples, burners, door seals, and quench fluid levels. Maintain complete and accurate production logs, heat-run records, and traceability documentation (ISO / Nadcap standards). Qualifications & Skills Experience: 2+ years of experience operating heat treatment furnaces in a forging, foundry, machine shop, or metals manufacturing environment. Technical Skills: Ability to read drawings, process specifications, and work orders. Equipment Knowledge: Familiarity with hardness testers (Rockwell/Brinell), furnace controllers, overhead cranes, and forklifts. Education: High school diploma or GED equivalent; vocational training in metallurgy or heat treating is a plus.