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Machinist/Welder Fabricator Technician

Department: Engineering Machine Shop Effective Date: March 2007
Grade: USG 8 Reports to:

Machine Shop Manager


General Accountability

Under the direction of the Manager, this position is responsible for the welding, fabricating, and painting of research and testing equipment and structure

Nature and Scope

The Faculty of Engineering Machine Shop provides design and manufacturing/fabricating services to faculty, staff and grad students from the Faculty of Engineering, and also from other faculties and departments of UW, and occasionally from outside the Campus. The scope of the projects varies from simple fabrications to highly technical research apparatus.   In-house expertise to design and build parts and equipment for research and teaching is a very important function for the Faculty of Engineering. The main shop consists of a large general machining section, grinding room, welding and sheet metal fabrication areas, a wood model shop and a general stores area for the distribution of machine shop tools/parts, supplies and raw materials.

 

The work orders submitted to the department go through feasibility, design, estimate and ordering of parts and materials, and construction stages. Technical details and methods of executing the project are worked out and various decisions affecting the performance, cost, and timing of the fabrication are made.  Resources, such as scientific publications and professional journals, may need to be consulted, and some design concepts and methods need to be tried on an experimental basis before finalizing the design. Technical support to teaching activities in all departments of the Faculty of Engineering includes support to professors teaching various courses when they need demonstration equipment, and to demonstrators teaching undergrad labs. Such equipment may need to be designed, built, repaired, modified, tested, calibrated or assembled on a very short time notice.

 

Permanent staff includes four machinists, two welder/fabricators, one store person, one custodian/store assistant, one administrative assistant and two student shop technicians.  Occasionally, when workload requires, extra persons may be hired on temporary or part-time basis. All staff report to the Shop Manager.

Statistical Data

Specific Accountabilities

The technician’s responsibilities include, but are not limited to: 

Working Conditions