Reinforced Plastic and Composite Production Worker
What the work is
Operates machines to apply gelcoat, colouring and fibre-reinforced plastic to moulds to produce fibreglass and laminated products.
Would you enjoy the work?
These are the main tasks in the official description. Mark how each one sounds to you.
- Sets up and prepares machines for reinforced plastics production
- Checks all templates, moulds and cut-out patterns to be used in the manufacturing process to ensure that they conform to specifications
- Applies gelcoat, colouring and fibre-reinforced plastic to moulds according to specifications
- Monitors and adjusts machine settings to ensure proper application of materials
- Ensures the correct applications of mixtures for effective setting of resins and gelcoats
- Checks completed products for conformance to specifications and to identify any deficiencies
- Repairs or modifies damaged or defective fibreglass parts to ensure they are fit for purpose
Try it
A simulation and a case study from this kind of work, set in a plastics factory with moulding machines, a composites bay for boat parts and a small rubber line. They are fictional.
The kind of days you could have
Good days
- A mould opens and a perfect part drops out, again and again, exactly to size
- A colour change goes smoothly and the first parts off the line need no tweaking
- You fix a problem before the quality team even knew it was there
Hard days
- Parts with tiny flaws that appear out of nowhere in the middle of a big run
- Fumes, noise and hot machinery that make long shifts tiring
- A colleague who wants to hurry a changeover that you know needs more care
Written by Career Calling as a general guide. Real roles vary by employer and place.
Work a mission
Step into a simulated workplace in this field, with a brief from your manager.
Description and tasks: Australian Bureau of Statistics, Occupation Standard Classification for Australia, 2024, Version 1.0 (opens another site), occupation 731333, used under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 licence. The skill guide above is our plain English summary.