Boilermaker
Quick Facts
Median Salary$68,189
Most Common EducationHigh school or GED
Projected 10-Year Growth+9.13%
Assessment MatchTake the Assessment
What They Do
A Boilermaker installs and repairs boilers or other large containers that hold liquids for generating heat or electricity, or for processing chemicals or other products. Assembles very large boilers at installation sites. Repairs boiler pipes and valves and inspects and replaces parts. May work on other large industrial equipment.
Core Tasks:
- Conduct pressure tests on vessels, such as boilers.
- Study blueprints to determine locations, relationships, or dimensions of parts.
- Examine boilers, pressure vessels, tanks, or vats to locate defects, such as leaks, weak spots, or defective sections, so that they can be repaired.
- Inspect assembled vessels or individual components, such as tubes, fittings, valves, controls, or auxiliary mechanisms, to locate any defects.
- Lay out plate, sheet steel, or other heavy metal and locate and mark bending and cutting lines, using protractors, compasses, and drawing instruments or templates.
- Bell, bead with power hammers, or weld pressure vessel tube ends to ensure leakproof joints.
- Locate and mark reference points for columns or plates on boiler foundations, following blueprints and using straightedges, squares, transits, or measuring instruments.
- Shape or fabricate parts, such as stacks, uptakes, or chutes, to adapt pressure vessels, heat exchangers, or piping to premises, using heavy-metalworking machines such as brakes, rolls, or drill presses.
- Position, align, and secure structural parts or related assemblies to boiler frames, tanks, or vats of pressure vessels, following blueprints.
- Clean pressure vessel equipment, using scrapers, wire brushes, and cleaning solvents.
- Repair or replace defective pressure vessel parts, such as safety valves or regulators, using torches, jacks, caulking hammers, power saws, threading dies, welding equipment, or metalworking machinery.
- Attach rigging and signal crane or hoist operators to lift heavy frame and plate sections or other parts into place.
- Straighten or reshape bent pressure vessel plates or structure parts, using hammers, jacks, or torches.
- Shape seams, joints, or irregular edges of pressure vessel sections or structural parts to attain specified fit of parts, using cutting torches, hammers, files, or metalworking machines.
- Bolt or arc weld pressure vessel structures and parts together, using wrenches or welding equipment.
- Install manholes, handholes, taps, tubes, valves, gauges, or feedwater connections in drums of water tube boilers, using hand tools.
What to expect as a Boilermaker
1Earn a High school or GED Diploma
29% of people achieve this level of education.
2Gain skills and experience
See Boilermaker related courses on Tallo
3Land a job
204 openings for Boilermakers
Career Progression
in United States (Nation)
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