I won't really say too much about my job because even when I explain it to people they don't usually understand too much about it unless they happen to have been in a similar factory at some time. Still I'll take a stab at it we produce extruded plown polyethene plastic film. It comes in as railcars of plastic pellets from the refinery , or perhaps there is another step between the oil refinery and us (yes plastic is made from oil). We pump the resin from the railcars with vacum pumps that suck it into our silos or sometimes straight into the blenders where we make the various resin mixes we use . We probably have more blenders than most plastics factiories because we make what is called converter film which is mostly sold to packaging companies who often have very exacting specifications in part because they have to take our product and run it through thier own machines to convert it into the bags you find many poular common everyday products in (I don't get to see much of these finished bags unless we get returns but bird seed, seafood, and haynes underwear all come to mind) Anyways, after we blend our resin it gets pumped into the resin hopper of the machine it is needed on (again thru vacum lines) then goes thru a heated extruder where it is heated to molten levels it then is forced thru the die top it comes out in a circle the die top is like a metal table with a circle cut in it the circle is where the molten plastic comes out there is a pipe in the center of the die where air comes out and fills up what we call the "bubble" which is the plastic pulled by an upper closed pair of rollers at the top of the cooloing tower called nips. it then comes back down the tower to the winder where it is cut to make the proper construction of film that the customer wants Down in front of the winders is where most of the employees work checking quality, making adjustments, and packaging rolls of product. I started as a machine operator but for several years have been a section leader (though the position was called foreman when I first got it). I generally enjoy my work. We do have a high personel turnover rate due to the fairly low starting wage by local factory standards. So I have seen a lot of people come and go over the years. Every at my job at Christmastime they give us a shirt I have at times figured out how long I have been working there by counting my shirts (of course I have to remember I got my first shirt after only a month there) anyways heres my list of Armin shirts. Also just a few days after I started they passed out Black shirts with gold letters on them the "we kicked Hugos Butt" shirts. I had not been there long enough so I did not get one several years later they pulled a box out of the office and found some more this time I got one! Back to Home Back to "about me contents page" |